Leonardo DiCaprio’s ex agent told him his name sounded “too ethnic”
Now, you know that Leonardo DiCaprio is a one of a kind actor and name, for that matter. But it wasn’t always that way. And in a new interview on the New Heights podcast, DiCaprio revealed that his name was almost changed to make it in the business.
New Heights, the podcast hosted by brothers Travis and Jason Kelce, featured DiCaprio and his co-star Benicio del Toro for their film One Battle After Another. While promoting the Paul Thomas Anderson film, DiCaprio revealed that his first agent told him at a young age that his name sounded too ethnic for him to use it as his name in Hollywood.
“I finally got an agent. They said, ‘Your name is too ethnic,’” DiCaprio told the duo. “I go, ‘What do you mean? It’s Leonardo DiCaprio?’ They go, ‘No, too ethnic. They’re never going to hire you. Your new name is Lenny Williams.’”
DiCaprio went on to say, “I said, ‘What is Lenny?’ I was 12,13. I said, ‘What is Lenny Williams?’ ‘We took your middle name and we made it. Now you’re Lenny.’” DiCaprio went on to say that his father saw his headshot with his new name, ripped up the photo, and refused to let his son change his name. Which prompted del Toro to share that an agent also told him to go by Benny Del at one point.
While it feels odd to think that people would say that to someone like DiCaprio, Hollywood did have a history of putting guys with Italian sounding names in mob movies only. Unless your name was Al Pacino or Robert de Niro. So maybe that agent thought it would limit DiCaprio? Whatever the case may be, it is messed up and I don’t think “Lenny Williams” would work as well as Leonardo DiCaprio does.
(featured image: Warner Bros.)
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