Leonardo DiCaprio recalled the stage name that would have set out a different path for his career. It was terrible advice from an agent who wanted the actor’s early prospects to work out.
DiCaprio said it was his father who put his foot down in protest, insisting the agent’s suggestion was ridiculous. Speaking on the New Heights podcast, the actor said he broke into the industry like countless other hopefuls, by doing auditions. He was ecstatic when he landed an agent, but they did not get off to a good start. “I finally got an agent and they said: ‘Your name is too ethnic,” he said. “I go, What do you mean?’ They go, ‘No, too ethnic. They’re never going to hire you. Your new name is Lenny Williams. ‘What’s Lenny Williams?'”
“‘We took your middle name and made it your last name and now [your first] name is Lenny,'” DiCaprio recalled the agent saying. “And my dad saw [the headshot photo], he ripped it up, and said, ‘Over my dead body.'”
His One Battle After Another co-star Benicio del Toro chimed in and said he was also advised to use “Benny Del” early in his career. While actors like Audrey Hepburn and Demi Moore benefited from shorter (and easier to pronounce) stage names, whose full names are Audrey Kathleen Ruston and Demi Gene Guynes, it would have easily turned sour for DiCaprio and del Toro if they did the same.
Leonardo DiCaprio Got His Big Break Early in His Career
Leonardo DiCaprio as Dom Cobb holding a gun and a token from the movie Inception (2010)Image via Warner Bros. Pictures
Born Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio, the actor got his start at 15 with appearances in TV shows Santa Barbara and The New Lassie; he made his film debut with a bit part in 1991’s Critters 3. He got his first big break in 1993 with This Boy’s Life (starring Robert De Niro and Ellen Barkin), and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape alongside Johnny Depp the same year. That was followed by milestones like 1996’s Romeo + Juliet, 1997’s Titanic, 1998’s The Man in the Iron Mask, 2002’s Gangs of New York, 2004’s The Aviator and 2006’s The Departed.
DiCaprio said working with De Niro in This Boy’s Life was also an “Oh, wow” moment in his career. “I was 16 years old. That was like, ‘I can’t believe I’m on set’ coming from television doing this great show called Growing Pains, but then damn, you’re on a set with Robert De Niro, and the seriousness, the focus, I remember the whole set went quiet. I’m like, ‘What’s everyone so nervous about? And then to watch this guy’s focus. I had a scene with him where I needed to step up. And I remember the director saying, ‘Watch him. Pain is temporary. Film is forever.’ That was like the note that hit me the hardest.”
DiCaprio said Sicario is the film he would have wanted to “steal” from del Toro’s career. Both actors were asked which of the other’s repertoire they wished they could do onscreen; del Toro chose The Wolf of Wall Street. “Traffic was amazing, but Sicario, that would have been a cool thing,” DiCaprio quipped.
One Battle After Another is showing in theaters.
Release Date
September 26, 2025
Runtime
162 minutes
Director
Paul Thomas Anderson
Sean Penn
Col. Steven J. Lockjaw
Chase Infiniti
Willa Ferguson
Benicio Del Toro
Sensei Sergio