{"id":167187,"date":"2025-09-25T02:51:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T02:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/167187\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T02:51:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T02:51:15","slug":"leonardo-dicaprio-and-benicio-del-toro-new-heights-podcast-actors-reveal-they-almost-changed-their-names-earlier-in-their-careers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/167187\/","title":{"rendered":"Leonardo DiCaprio and Benicio del Toro New Heights podcast: Actors reveal they almost changed their names earlier in their careers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leonardo DiCaprio<\/a> and Benicio del Toro<\/a> both made their first ever podcast appearance<\/a> overnight, speaking to NFL brothers Jason and Travis Kelce<\/a> on New Heights.<\/p>\n

The actors were talking about the early days of their careers in the show’s “holy s–t segment and boy, \ufeffDiCaprio did not disappoint.<\/p>\n

The Titanic star revealed he used to be a break dancing busker as a kid and that agents changed his name when he first started in the biz, saying his actual name was “too ethnic”.<\/p>\n

\"LeonardoLeonardo DiCaprio revealed that agents changed his name when he first started in the biz, saying his actual name was “too ethnic”. (YouTube\/New Heights)<\/p>\n

“They said, ‘Your name is too ethnic,'” he said, recalling the chat with an agent when he was about 12 or 13 years old.<\/p>\n

“I go, ‘What do mean? It’s Leonardo DiCaprio.’ They go, ‘No, too ethnic. They’re never gonna hire you. Your new name is Lenny Williams.'”<\/p>\n

He explained they’d created the new surname from his middle name Wilhelm.<\/p>\n

The new name was written on the bottom of his first headshots but his dad wasn’t allowing the name change to happen.\ufeff<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Robert Irwin could be ‘single forever’ in his search for love<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Daughter of two Hollywood stars speaks at United Nations<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: How TV star’s on-screen mum has helped him through cancer<\/a><\/p>\n

\"LeonardoThe Kelce boys were floored by the story but del Toro got it instantly, saying he too was advised to use a different moniker. (YouTube\/New Heights)\"LeonardoThe pair were on the podcast to promote their new movie One Battle After Another\ufeff. (YouTube\/New Heights)<\/p>\n

“My dad saw this photo, ripped it up, and he said, ‘Over my dead body.'”<\/p>\n

The Kelce boys were floored by the story but del Toro got it instantly, saying he too was advised to use a different moniker.<\/p>\n

\ufeff”I had the same thing, they said ‘now you’re Benny Del,” del Toro said.<\/p>\n

The pair were on the podcast to promote their new movie One Battle After Another\ufeff, with the Kelce brothers joking the episode wouldn’t have been the same with Lenny and Benny.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Celebrities reveal their real names<\/p>\n

Jason pointed out the agents are now probably the ones having “holy s–t” moments, with DiCaprio taking home an Oscar for The Revenant in 2016 and del Toro winning Best Supporting Actor for Traffic at the 2001 Oscars\ufeff.<\/p>\n

DiCaprio broke into acting at the age of 14, appearing in TV sitcom Growing Pains from 1991 to 1992 before starring opposite Robert De Niro in This Boy’s Life in 1993.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of 9honey, subscribe to our newsletter here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Del Toro admitted he came to acting much later in life, while at university\ufeff.<\/p>\n

In the years since, he’s amassed an array of roles in a number of big name movie, including Sicario, Guardians of the Galaxy and The French Dispatch.<\/p>\n

FOLLOW US ON WHATSAPP HERE<\/a>: Stay across all the latest in celebrity, lifestyle and opinion via our WhatsApp channel. No comments, no algorithm and nobody can see your private details.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leonardo DiCaprio and Benicio del Toro both made their first ever podcast appearance overnight, speaking to NFL brothers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167188,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,134],"class_list":{"0":"post-167187","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}