Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio: The Love Story Goes On and On

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Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet at the SAG Awards. (Photo: Getty Images)

As Leonardo DiCaprio rides out the final weeks before his predicted Oscar win, close friend and sometimes co-star, Kate Winslet, is lending support.

“He’s a stronger actor in this moment than he’s ever been,” Winslet says in the new issue of People. “I think he’s more handsome than he’s ever been. And he feels, to me, the most settled he’s ever felt, in himself, right now, which is quite strange, really, given that there’s a lot happening around him.”

Related: Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet Through the Years

Winslet and DiCaprio, of course, made movie history as Rose and Jack in 1997’s blockbuster Titanic and co-starred as a married couple in the drama Revolutionary Road 11 years later. The two never dated, but she knows him better than an ex-boyfriend, more like a brother. To that end, Winslet has teased DiCaprio in the press before, calling him “just smelly, farty Leo,” among other things. But she’s been especially kind to her old friend leading up to this year’s Academy Awards, where he’s nominated in an acting category for the fifth time.

Related: Red-Carpet Flashback! Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio Through the Years

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Leo and Kate at the 1998 Golden Globe Awards. (Photo: Getty Images)

"He’s a solid, loyal person,” Winslet, an Oscar winner herself for 2009’s The Reader, raved to the magazine. “He’s a great friend, he always has been, and not just to me, but to everyone around him. He still has friends he had when we made Titanic.”

Just last month, the actress explained that she would like to see DiCaprio finally take home the Oscar on Feb. 28, even though that means her co-star in Steve Jobs, Michael Fassbender, will not. Both Fassbender and Winslet are nominated for their roles in the biopic.

“I think you can sort of feel it, and I think that everyone wants it for [Leo],” Winslet told BBC News. “It would be amazing.”

“It’s slightly difficult for me too,” she continued, “because Michael Fassbender has been nominated, and I was his right-hand woman for three months while we were making Steve Jobs and I saw how hard he worked. I think his performance is so extraordinary. But I think, yeah, you can sort of feel the temperature. It’s probably going to be Leo’s year.”

Related: Leonardo DiCaprio on Possibly Winning an Oscar: ‘It’s Completely Beyond My Control at This Point’

Whatever happens, maybe Winslet is the one who should advise Leo against pulling out his vape pen at the Oscars.