Leonardo DiCaprio doesn't want to direct - because he doesn't think he'd be as good as Martin Scorsese.

The 51-year-old actor admitted stepping behind the camera has never been in his plans but it has "never" been a consideration because he can't come close to the greatness of his Killers of the Flower Moon filmmaker, with whom he is currently working on a seventh movie.

In a discussion with Scorsese during TIME magazine's A Year in TIME event in New York City last week, People reports he said: "Some people have asked me if I wanted to direct.

"I'm like, 'I would never want to direct. I could never do anything close to what Martin Scorsese does. Why would I do that?' " D

The One Battle After Another star regrets not having taken a step back to "observe" the filmmaking process in its entirety and to study the way Scorsese, 83, works in detail.

He said: "You play these characters, you try to get into the depth of their soul as much as you possibly can. And I would've loved to be much more of a voyeur … to watch what you [Scorsese] do behind the camera.

"If I look back on anything, I would've loved to have observed that process behind the camera a lot more."

Leonardo and the Taxi Driver director spend "months" preparing and discussing their projects before they start shooting.

The Oscar-winning actor said: "That's been our process a lot, I think, working together … the ability to almost have a debate for months before and lots of questions, and lots of playing devil's advocate about a way to approach things that may not be the most obvious direction.

"We're doing that on the new film that we're doing now, but it's been absolutely one of the most profound learning experiences."

The Departed star hailed working with the legendary filmmaker one of the "proudest moments" of his life.

He said: "I grew up watching movies very young -- wanting to be an actor," he said. "My father brought me to see Marty's work, along with Mr. [Robert] De Niro's, and said, 'If there's anyone you want to strive to work with in your career, now that you have the capability of doing movies, it's with this gentleman.' So I got to see Marty's work very, very early on."