KPop Demon Hunters star Ejae is opening up about the moment Leonardo DiCaprio left her so nervous that she missed the mark during a BAFTA performance.
The singer-songwriter says the Oscar winner’s serious expression and intense stare threw her off as she performed in front of a room packed with Hollywood’s biggest stars.
Ejae, the breakout singing voice behind the character Rumi in Netflix’s record-breaking hit KPop Demon Hunters, blamed Leonardo DiCaprio’s demeanor for the reason she was completely thrown off-key during a performance at the BAFTAs.
Speaking in a candid interview with The Times, the 34-year-old singer-songwriter confessed that her performance at the BAFTA Film Awards earlier this year still “haunts” her, pointing directly to a surprise staring contest with the Oscar winner as the culprit behind her vocal mistakes.
“The BAFTAs haunt me,” she told the news outlet. “I made mistakes. I cracked a little bit on the high notes. Leonardo DiCaprio was [in the audience] right in front of me, and he was not smiling.”
Ejae Recalls The Moment DiCaprio Threw Her Off
The awkward moment occurred as Ejae had to hit a high note while delivering a live rendition of the song “Born To Be” with her HUNTR/X groupmates, Audrey Nuna and REI AMI.
She casually glanced into the crowd, only to lock eyes with the Titanic star, whose seemingly unimpressed look affected her.
“That’s what put me off,” she recalled with a laugh. “He made me so nervous. It was already so nerve-racking to be in front of all these celebrities, and then I look up and lock eyes with Leonardo DiCaprio? Come on.”
Ejae’s BAFTA Slip-Up Can’t Slow Her Award-Winning Run
Despite the brief hiccup at London’s Royal Festival Hall, the minor vocal crack couldn’t dampen the success of KPop Demon Hunters.
The film has since gone on to smash streaming records and become Netflix’s most-watched original movie in history, while “Golden,” co-written by Ejae, swept awards season, winning Best Original Song at both the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards.
It also won a Grammy for Best Song Written for Visual Media, making history as the first K-pop song to win a Grammy, per the BBC.
Ejae Reveals The Surreal Reality Of Her KPop Demon Hunters Fame
Elsewhere in her interview with The Times, Ejae reflected on her rise to international stardom over the past year and expressed immense gratitude for what she has achieved.
“I know [this kind of success] happens; I just didn’t think it would happen to me,” she said. “I had no inkling at all that KPop Demon Hunters would be as big as it became. I did think it might be huge because the story was so cool, but you never know. In the past year I’ve lived five lives. It doesn’t stop. Who does this all in one year?”
She even revealed that she discovered Beyoncé and Jay-Z are big fans of hers after meeting them at the Oscars.
“I was at their afterparty, and Jay-Z came up to me and said, ‘Hi, my name’s Shawn,’” she recounted. “I was beyond starstruck. Beyoncé is my idol, and she said, ‘You have an incredible voice.’ I asked her, ‘Do you know Golden?’ She was like, ‘Yeah, my girls sing it.’”
Asked what the downside to her meteoric rise is, she said, “The only thing is that I can’t go to onsens [hot springs] anymore because you’re fully naked going in. It’s still crazy to me. I was a nobody, and suddenly I’m a something.”
DiCaprio Names The Two Co-Stars Who Left Him Awestruck
Meanwhile, DiCaprio has previously spoken about how two actresses had a similarly strong effect on him to the one he had on Ejae when he was starting out in his career.
In a 2025 profile with TIME, he revealed that he was starstruck by actresses Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton, both of whom featured alongside him in the 1996 film Marvin’s Room.
DiCaprio told the news outlet that he was “awed by” both Streep and Keaton, but he “loved Keaton especially.”
“She had the most incredible laugh,” the actor said about his fondness for Keaton, who died from pneumonia in October 2025 at the age of 79.
“It would echo through the entire set, and she made you feel like the funniest person in the world. I mean, burst-out-loud laughing. I’ll never forget it. I kind of lived to make her laugh every day on set, because it was so infectious. She was incredible,” he added.
