Leonardo DiCaprio was told to change his name to Lenny Williams or no one will hire him: ‘Dad said, over my dead body’

Actor Leonardo DiCaprio recently revealed that he was once advised to change his name to Lenny Williams, because his name was apparently too 'ethnic.'

By: Entertainment Desk

New Delhi | Updated: September 26, 2025 04:26 PM IST

3 min read

Leonardo DiCaprio reveals interesting detail about the nascent stages of his career. (Photo: Reuters)

Actor Leonardo DiCaprio’s name is synonymous with excellence in the field of acting, but recently the actor revealed that the world might have never known that name at all. In fact, it might have been something as obscure as Lenny Williams. While appearing on a podcast, the actor talked about hiring an agent in the early days of his career and the weird advice she gave him to get more roles.

He said, “I finally got an agent. They said, ‘Your name is too ethnic.'” When DiCaprio asked them exactly what they meant by that, they said, “No, too ethnic. They’re never going to hire you. Your new name is Lenny Williams.” The actor, who was just a kid at this point, asked the point behind the whole thing, and they just said that they used his middle name, which is Lenny. The actor didn’t have the time to react to this news, so he took the fresh batch of headshots to his father, which had the new name, and his father ripped them up and said, “Over my dead body.”

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Usual Suspects star Benicio Del Toro was also in the same interview, and he added, “I was told the same thing: ‘You’re Benny Del.'” Both of the stars will be seen next in Paul Thomas Anderson’s action thriller, One Battle After Another. The cast also includes stars like Sean Penn, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, Wood Harris, Alana Haim, and Shayna McHayle. The trailer for the same created huge buzz because of the director and the crop of actors that are involved with the project.

The comment section under the film’s trailer tells you what you need to know about how much people are looking forward to it. One user wrote, “Benicio is so underrated, man. Dude kills every role,” while another wrote, “If it’s by Paul Thomas Anderson, there’s no chance it could be bad. He’s one of the greatest directors. An absolute genius.” The current Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes stands at 98%, with the film receiving mostly 5/5 ratings. Critic Katie Walsh of the Tribune News Service wrote, “Anderson has made the film of the year with the incendiary, incisive and frequently quite funny ‘One Battle After Another’, which just happens to be a searing indictment of this particular moment in American history.”

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