(Credits: Far Out / Ron Rafferty)
Fri 16 January 2026 18:15, UK
As one of cinema’s most famous faces, biggest stars, and most selective actors, the thought of Leonardo DiCaprio being fired from anything is unthinkable, and it has been for the last three decades.
Ever since James Cameron’s Titanic sent him stratospheric, he’s been one of Hollywood’s most in-demand leading men, and while his workload has been carefully managed to ensure that quality outweighs quantity, there isn’t a director or producer on the planet who’d contemplate giving him the boot.
Of course, like everyone else in his position, there are roles he wanted that he didn’t get. Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights is the most famous one that got away, and it’s fascinating to imagine how differently his career could have turned out had he accepted even one of his most famous what-ifs.
Alongside Dirk Diggler, he could have been American Psycho‘s Patrick Bateman, Matt Damon’s title character in The Talented Mr Ripley, The Matrix‘s Neo, James Cameron’s Spider-Man, or George Lucas’ Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, but you could say he’s done alright without them.
DiCaprio dreamed of being an actor from the second he was old enough to realise that he could make a living out of it, and his early years were defined by commercials and TV work. Before he’d even made his screen debut in two 1989 episodes of The New Lassie, though, he’d already got a firing under his belt.
From 1953 to 1994, Romper Room was a staple of American households. The series was geared towards younger kids, and it was the perfect place for an aspiring child actor to dip their feet into television. A five-year-old DiCaprio was cast on the show, but he wasn’t there for very long.
“I have very faint memories of it, but I remember my stepbrother had dabbled in acting when he was young,” he recalled to Deadline. “Romper Room was the big hit show, and there I was. I remember running up to the camera, looking into it, and slapping it. They had to sit me down multiple times.”
If he was five, then this would have been somewhere between late 1979 and 1980, with the future Academy Award winner’s excitability getting the better of him. “When the host said, ‘Hey kids, it’s story time’, I am screaming, at the top of my voice, ‘Yeah!’ And then they fired me.”
It was the first and last time he’d be given his marching orders, but DiCaprio doesn’t hold it against Romper Room. “I’m afraid I deserved it,” he added. “They had to kick me out.”
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