Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet? No, wait, the real question is, would Leonardo DiCaprio ever have gotten to star in Romeo + Juliet if he had a much, much worse stage name??
The Titanic star shared a hilarious Hollywood sliding doors story about crucial early career choices during his appearance on the New Heights podcast. Leo is going HARD promoting his new movie One Battle After Another, making his first podcast appearance ever on Travis and Jason Kelce‘s show on Wednesday. But he should do more, because he has some great stories!
Related: Cops Didn’t Recognize Leo During Search In Ibiza!
When he and co-star Benicio Del Toro were asked about their sort of “Welcome to Hollywood” moments, Leo recalled his struggles to get an agent as a young teen. Not only did he face a lot of rejection, he was told early on that Leonardo DiCaprio — his real name — was “too ethnic”:
“I finally got an agent, they said, ‘Your name is too ethnic… They’re never gonna hire you.’”
Yeah. Crazy to think about now as it’s become a household name… but even Leo faced some xenophobia trying to break in. They wanted that blonde hair and those blue eyes — they didn’t want that Italian name. Yeesh.
The name they wanted him to go by? Lenny Williams.
Everyone ERUPTED at that! We mean, of course! Who wants to go see the most romantic and powerful films ever made starring… Lenny Williams?? No offense to anyone with that name, but… SRSLY?!?
He may have been young and confused, but his father saw the new headshots with their family name erased and wasn’t having it!
“My dad saw this photo, ripped it up, and said, ‘Over my dead body!’”
Phew! And disaster was averted thanks to not caving in to ethnocentric thinking! See the moment Leo shocked everyone with his terrible almost stage name (below)!
[Image via New Heights/Warner Bros/YouTube.]
The post Leonardo DiCaprio Almost Had THE WORST Stage Name After Being Told His Was ‘Too Ethnic’! appeared first on Perez Hilton.