{"id":179646,"date":"2025-09-25T00:01:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T00:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/179646\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T00:01:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T00:01:07","slug":"leonardo-dicaprio-recalls-agent-thought-his-name-was-too-ethnic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/179646\/","title":{"rendered":"Leonardo DiCaprio Recalls Agent Thought His Name Was &#8220;Too Ethnic&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\t<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/leonardo-dicaprio\/\">Leonardo DiCaprio<\/a> has longtime fans pondering if a former teen heartthrob by any other name is still just as famous.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tThe Oscar winner recently revealed that he was originally told his name was \u201ctoo ethnic\u201d and advised by one of his early agents to perform under a stage name, which brought a strong reaction out of his father.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\t\u201cI finally got an agent. They said, \u2018Your name is too ethnic,&#8217;\u201d he recounted on the <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/AOHXxaah38o\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">New Heights<\/a> podcast. \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.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tDiCaprio added, \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 \u2014 now you\u2019re Lenny.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tThe <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/one-battle-after-another\/\">One Battle After Another<\/a> star recalled to his co-star <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/benicio-del-toro\/\">Benicio del Toro<\/a> that his dad saw a headshot featuring the new stage name, \u201cripped it up, and he said, \u2018Over my dead body.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-deadline-2019\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.jpg\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/MCDONBA_WB012.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"683\" width=\"1024\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tLeonardo DiCaprio in \u2018One Battle After Another\u2019 (2025) (Warner Bros.\/Courtesy Everett Collection)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tDel Toro recalled a similar experience. \u201cI was told the same thing. \u2018You\u2019re Benny Del,\u2019 he shared with DiCaprio.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tDiCaprio became a household name with breakout roles in What\u2019s Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), Romeo + Juliet (1996) and Titanic (1997).<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tIn One Battle After Another, DiCaprio plays ex-radical Bob Ferguson, who reunites with his former group of revolutionaries to go head-to-head with old nemesis Col. Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn) and rescue his daughter Willa (Chase Infiniti). The film also stars Del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, Alana Haim and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leonardo DiCaprio has longtime fans pondering if a former teen heartthrob by any other name is still just&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179647,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[104367,88,2942,206],"class_list":{"0":"post-179646","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-benicio-del-toro","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-leonardo-dicaprio","11":"tag-movies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}