![\"Leonardo](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/3G2N744CFRGEXLKR2DRNHPTMUA.jpg\"\/)
Leonardo DiCaprio attends the “One Battle After Another” New York Screening at The Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theatre on September 21, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy\/WireImage)WireImage<\/p>\nLeonardo DiCaprio attends the “One Battle After Another” New York Screening at The Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theatre on September 21, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy\/WireImage)WireImage<\/p>\n
Leonardo DiCaprio<\/a> has been a household name for decades. But if one of his early agents had gotten their way, we might have never known him by that. <\/p>\n The Academy Award winner revealed on the Sept. 24 episode of \u201cNew Heights,\u201d<\/a> hosted by brothers Travis and Jason Kelce, that he was asked to change his name when he was first starting out in Hollywood because it sounded \u201ctoo ethnic.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI finally got an agent,\u201d DiCaprio began. \u201cThey said, \u2018Your name is too ethnic,\u2019\u201d DiCaprio recalled. \u201cI go, \u2018What do you mean? It\u2019s Leonardo DiCaprio?\u2019 They go, \u2018No, too ethnic. They\u2019re never going to hire you. Your new name is Lenny Williams.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n DiCaprio continued: \u201cI said, \u2018What is Lenny?\u2019 I was 12,13. I said, \u2018What is Lenny Williams?\u2019 \u2018We took your middle name and we made it. Now you\u2019re Lenny.\u2019\u201d For context, DiCaprio\u2019s middle name is Wilhelm.<\/p>\n This new moniker did not go over well with DiCaprio\u2019s dad. The \u201cTitanic\u201d star explained that when his father saw his new headshots marked Lenny Williams, he \u201cripped it up, and he said, \u2018Over my dead body.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The Kelce brothers also had Benicio del Toro, who is DiCaprio\u2019s co-star in the new film “One Battle After Another,” as a guest on the episode. Del Toro had a similar story to share.<\/p>\n \u201cI was told the same thing. \u2018You\u2019re Benny Del,\u2019\u201d the \u201cSicario\u201d<\/a> actor recounted.<\/p>\n Fortunately, DiCaprio and Del Toro\u2019s decision to stick with their real names seemingly didn\u2019t impact their careers. <\/p>\n \u201cOne Battle After Another,\u201d based on the 1990 novel \u201cVineland\u201d by Thomas Pynchon, is now playing. Sean Penn, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, and Chase Infiniti also star in the action thriller film, which follows an ex-revolutionary (DiCaprio) who must rescue his daughter from a corrupt military official.<\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leonardo DiCaprio attends the “One Battle After Another” New York Screening at The Film Society of Lincoln Center,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45037,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[10863,93,61,60,270,10864],"class_list":{"0":"post-45036","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-bestof","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-movies","13":"tag-topix"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"One](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/ZMJKBU3DNZFLBIBVJMNEGDMYSI.jpg\"\/)
Leonardo DiCaprio and Benicio del Toro speak during the fan event for the movie ‘One Battle After Another’ at Plaza Toreo Parque Central on September 18, 2025 in Naucalpan de Juarez, Mexico. (Photo by Eloisa Sanchez\/Getty Images)Getty Images<\/p>\n