Leonardo DiCaprio reveals being told that his name was "too ethnic" for Hollywood

Actor Leonardo DiCaprio is currently one of the most noted and highest-paid actors in the world. However, in the early years of his career, the actor was told by his first agent that his name was "too ethnic" for Hollywood and suggested changing his name to Lenny Williams.

During an appearance on the New Heights podcast ahead of the release of his film One Battle After Another, DiCaprio recalled: "I go, ‘What do you mean, it’s Leonardo DiCaprio?’ They go, ‘No, too ethnic. They’re never going to hire you.'"

He was told when he was 12: "'Your new name is Lenny Williams'. I said, 'What is Lenny?'...'We took your middle name (Wilhelm) and we made it your (last name). Now you’re Lenny'."

However, thanks to the intervention of his father George DiCaprio, the name Leonardo DiCaprio stayed. "And my dad saw his photo, ripped it up, and he said, 'Over my dead body'," Leo explained.

Adding on to it, his One Battle After Another co-star Benicio del Toro shared that he was also told to change his name to Benny Dell.

The Wolf of Wall Street actor also reminisced the times when he was rejected by agents multiple times. “I remember auditioning when I was very young. I was like a child actor. My stepbrother was an actor, and there were these acting agents that would line you up like cattle—I was a break dancer. I’d break dance for, like, money on the streets sometimes,” DiCaprio shared, adding, "It was like ‘yes, yes, no,’ and they’d look at me, ‘no’ and they all got agents...I remember saying to my dad, ‘This is horrible.’ I went back, and they did it again." Thanks to his father's encouragement, DiCaprio kept going until he scored his break in TV commercials after which came sitcom and film roles.

He turned 50 in November 2024, and the actor previously revealed that he wanted to be "more honest" after celebrating his landmark birthday.

Speaking to Esquire UK, he explained, "It (turning 50) creates a feeling like you have a desire to just be more honest and not waste your time. I can only imagine how the next few decades are going to progress. I look at my mother, for example, and she just says exactly what she thinks and wastes no time. She spends no time trying to fake it."

DiCaprio's upcoming film One Battle After Another, written, produced, and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, is scheduled for release on September 25. It is inspired from Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel Vineland, also includes Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, Alana Haim (Licorice Pizza), Shayna McHayle, Wood Harris, Teyana Taylor and Sean Penn. It centres on a group of former revolutionaries who reunite to confront an enemy that has resurfaced after 16 years.