{"id":449699,"date":"2025-09-25T05:52:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T05:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/449699\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T05:52:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T05:52:15","slug":"leonardo-dicaprio-told-his-name-was-too-ethnic-to-be-a-movie-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/449699\/","title":{"rendered":"Leonardo DiCaprio Told His Name Was ‘Too Ethnic’ to Be a Movie Star"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tLeonardo DiCaprio<\/a> opened up about some terrible advice he once received from a talent agent.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe actor appeared on the New Heights podcast<\/a> along with his One Battle After Another co-star Benicio del Toro and discussed the new film and their experiences working with iconic directors. <\/p>\n

\n\tWhen asked about shocking moments in their career, DiCaprio said he had a \u201cfun one\u201d from when he was a very young actor. DiCaprio\u2019s first agent secured him a headshot photo and then gave him a surprising piece of news.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI finally got an agent and they said: \u2018Your name is too ethnic,\u201d I go, What do you mean?\u2019 They go, \u2018No, too ethnic. They\u2019re never going to hire you. Your new name is Lenny Williams. \u2018What\u2019s Lenny Williams?\u2019 \u2018We took your middle name and made it your last name and now [your first] name is Lenny.\u2019 And my dad saw [the headshot photo the agent took], he ripped it up, and said, \u2018Over my dead body.’\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tAt this point, del Toro gestured to himself and said \u201cBenny Del,\u201d suggesting that he, too, received similar advice early in his career. <\/p>\n

\n\tWhen the duo is asked what was \u201con their Mount Rushmore of movies,\u201d DiCaprio listed East of Eden, Taxi Driver and 2001: A Space Odyssey, while del Toro cited Papillon and On the Waterfront.<\/p>\n

\n\tAsked about pieces of advice they were given, DiCaprio recalled being on the set of This Boy\u2019s Life when he was 16, working across from Robert De Niro when director Michael Caton-Jones advised: \u201c\u2018Watch [De Niro]. Pain is temporary, film is forever.\u2019 That\u2019s the note that hit me the hardest that stayed with me forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe duo was also asked if they could act in one role that the other starred in, which would it be? DiCaprio said Sicaro, \u201cthat shit was badass.\u201d While del Toro said, The Wolf of Wall Street.<\/p>\n

\n\tDirector Paul Thomas Anderson\u2019s One Battle After Another is receiving terrific reviews<\/a> and is set to open in theaters on Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leonardo DiCaprio opened up about some terrible advice he once received from a talent agent. The actor appeared…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3940],"tags":[4080,77,33878,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-449699","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-leonardo-dicaprio","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115263382801642655","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}