Famous Hollywood actor says agent asked him to change his ‘too ethnic’ name: ‘Over my dead body’

Leonardo DiCaprio has been a household name for decades. But if one of his early agents had gotten their way, we might have never known him by that.

The Academy Award winner revealed on the Sept. 24 episode of “New Heights,” hosted by brothers Travis and Jason Kelce, that he was asked to change his name when he was first starting out in Hollywood because it sounded “too ethnic.”

“I finally got an agent,” DiCaprio began. “They said, ‘Your name is too ethnic,’” DiCaprio recalled. “I go, ‘What do you mean? It’s Leonardo DiCaprio?’ They go, ‘No, too ethnic. They’re never going to hire you. Your new name is Lenny Williams.’”

DiCaprio continued: “I said, ‘What is Lenny?’ I was 12,13. I said, ‘What is Lenny Williams?’ ‘We took your middle name and we made it. Now you’re Lenny.’” For context