Leonardo DiCaprio Was Told to Change Name to Lenny Williams at Start of Career

Oscar winner Lenny Williams just doesn’t have the same ring to it. 

Leonardo DiCaprio opened up about a lesser known fact about his early days as a child actor during an appearance on Travis and Jason Kelce’s New Heights podcast on Wednesday, Sept. 24. 

“I finally got an agent. They said, ‘Your name is too ethnic,’ ” DiCaprio, 50, recalled during his appearance with his One Battle After Another costar, Benicio del Toro. “I go, ‘What do mean? It’s Leonardo DiCaprio.’ They go, ‘No, too ethnic. They’re never gonna hire you. Your new name is Lenny Williams.’ ”

Sharing that he was 12 or 13 when the suggestion was made, DiCaprio added that “Williams” came from his middle name, Wilhelm.

“And my dad saw his photo, ripped it up, and he said, ‘Over my dead body,’ ” DiCaprio said of his dad, George DiCaprio. 

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The DiCaprio lineage comes from Italian immigrants and Leo’s dad George is a performance artist and writer himself.

Leo went on to share that he didn’t get hired immediately as a kid. 

“I remember auditioning when I was very young. I was like a child actor,” the Killers of the Flower Moon actor said. “My stepbrother was an actor, and there were these acting agents that that would line you up like cattle. I was a break dancer. I’d break dance for, like, money on the streets sometimes. Oh, yeah. I had the step haircut.”

He recalled other break dancers getting agents, saying, “I remember saying to my dad, ‘This is horrible.’ I went back, and they did it again. ‘Yes. Yes. No. No.’ I just remember, my dad sings, you know, ‘Someday you’re gonna have your time, son. Just keep at it. Keep at it.’ “

Of course, DiCaprio went on to make his mark in ‘90s hits like Titanic, Romeo + Juliet and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. He has since received five Oscar nominations and one win for his role in The Revenant in 2016.

“I’m slowing down a bit,” DiCaprio told PEOPLE earlier this month of his career. “When these opportunities come up, I mean, I can’t say no,” he added of working with writer and director Paul Thomas Anderson on One Battle After Another, which is out Sept. 26.

The award winner said it’s not the accolades that motivate him moving forward in his career. 

“Awards can come and go,” he added. “Accolades, box office can come and go, but those pieces of art, that you still talk about and still think about and still question. Those are the films that we strive for as an actor. And Paul is the dude of our generation that does them.”