Had history taken a different turn, it might have been Lenny Williams gracing the silver screen in "Titanic." During a recent guest appearance on the "New Heights" podcast, Leonardo DiCaprio revealed a fascinating anecdote from his early days in Hollywood. He recounted how, as a budding actor in his early teens, an agent informed him that his name carried "too much ethnic flavor" and urged him to adopt the stage name Lenny Williams instead.
"I finally landed an agent," DiCaprio reminisced. "They said, 'Your name's too ethnic.' I was like, 'What do you mean? It's Leonardo DiCaprio!' They replied, 'No, too ethnic. They'll never hire you. Your new name is Lenny Williams.'" He continued, "I asked, 'What's Lenny?' I was only 12 or 13. 'What's Lenny Williams?' I queried. 'We took your middle name and crafted it. Now, you're Lenny,' they explained."
The "Wolf of Wall Street" luminary added that when he proudly showed his father a headshot emblazoned with his new moniker, his father "tore it to shreds and declared, 'Over my dead body.'"
Benicio Del Toro, who joined DiCaprio in the interview, also recounted a similar experience with an agent pushing him to alter his name. "I was given the same advice," he shared. "'You're Benny Del,' they said."
DiCaprio and Del Toro are set to co-star in Paul Thomas Anderson's upcoming thriller, "One Battle After Another," which is slated to hit theaters on September 26. The film casts DiCaprio as Bob, a weary revolutionary who must reunite with his former co-conspirators to save his daughter from an old adversary.
Variety film critic Owen Gleiberman was particularly impressed with the film. In his review, he wrote, "'One Battle After Another' is a cinematic experience that taps into the raw urgency of the present moment; it sends a shiver down your spine while serving as a wake-up call. Yet, when described, the movie may come across as rather aggressive in its dystopian topicality, resembling a bombs-away, intentionally over-the-top thriller-satire that reflects our current reality and hints at what lies ahead."
