50 Fun Facts About Leonardo DiCaprio

In which city was Leonardo DiCaprio born in 1974?

Los Angeles. His parents divorced when he was a toddler and he was raised mostly by his mother; it was a stepbrother's well-paid TV advert that first pointed him towards acting.

DiCaprio's mother Irmelin was a legal secretary from which country?

Germany. His maternal grandmother lived there until her death in 2008, and a viral 2022 claim that she came from Odesa in Ukraine was never backed by any evidence.

DiCaprio's mother first felt him kick while looking at a da Vinci painting in which museum?

The Uffizi. His parents were visiting Florence when the unborn baby kicked furiously in front of the painting, and they took it as a sign: the boy would be called Leonardo.

An early agent wanted DiCaprio to adopt which more 'American' stage name?

Lenny Williams. The agent thought his real name 'too ethnic'; DiCaprio refused to change it, went a long time without work, and was ready to quit until his father talked him round.

At age 11, DiCaprio nearly quit acting to pursue which hobby?

Breakdancing. He had just taken second place in a small competition and earned the nickname 'Noodle', which was nearly enough to end his acting career before it began.

Which toy brand's commercials does DiCaprio describe as his first role?

Matchbox. He was 14 and played 'a little gangster' with slicked-back hair in the toy-car advert, and remembers being incredibly nervous.

On which sitcom did DiCaprio play Luke Brower, a homeless boy taken in by the family?

Growing Pains. He joined the fading sitcom in 1991 and could not lift its ratings, though its star Alan Thicke lobbied the producers to save the show by giving him a bigger part.

DiCaprio made his film debut in 1991 in which low-budget horror sequel?

Critters 3. He played a landlord's stepson, and has since called it possibly one of the worst films of all time, a debut he would rather people forgot.

Which actor handpicked DiCaprio from 400 hopefuls to co-star in This Boy's Life?

Robert De Niro. Watching the auditions he said, 'I like the blond kid', and once filming began director Michael Caton-Jones had to drill the bad habits out of his young co-star.

Which 1993 film earned the 19-year-old DiCaprio his first Oscar nomination?

What's Eating Gilbert Grape. Director Lasse Hallström nearly passed on him as too good-looking to play Johnny Depp's disabled brother Arnie, then cast him on the strength of his audition.

Sharon Stone paid DiCaprio's salary herself on which 1995 Sam Raimi western?

The Quick and the Dead. Stone wrote that he was the only actor who nailed the audition, and when the studio told her she could pay the 'unknown' out of her own salary if she wanted him so much, she did.

Which rebellious teenage French poet did DiCaprio play in Total Eclipse (1995)?

Arthur Rimbaud. The film charts his stormy affair with the older poet Paul Verlaine, who shot and wounded him in a drunken rage; the real Rimbaud gave up poetry by about 21 and ended up a trader in Africa.

Who played Juliet opposite DiCaprio in the 1996 film Romeo + Juliet?

Claire Danes. DiCaprio said she was the only girl who looked him in the eye in auditions; Natalie Portman was also tried for the part, but the studio judged her far too young beside him.

Romeo + Juliet won DiCaprio a Silver Bear for Best Actor at which film festival?

Berlin. He had nearly passed on the film, saying he didn't want 'to run around in tights, swinging a sword', until his father urged him to take a closer look at the director's work.

In Marvin's Room (1996), DiCaprio played Hank, the troubled son of which actress's character?

Meryl Streep. She was first lined up to play the saintly sister Bessie, but preferred the angry Lee, Hank's mother, and suggested Diane Keaton for the part she had given up.

Which 1997 film did DiCaprio turn down in order to make Titanic?

Boogie Nights. Paul Thomas Anderson wanted him as Dirk Diggler, but he was already committed to Titanic; in 2025 he called turning the part down his biggest regret.

In Titanic, DiCaprio's Jack Dawson wins his ticket at which game?

Poker. Jack lays down a full house as the ship's whistle sounds its final warning, then sprints aboard; the film went on to win 11 Oscars, matching Ben-Hur's record.

In which 1998 film did DiCaprio play both King Louis XIV and his secret twin?

The Man in the Iron Mask. On its opening weekend it finished in a virtual tie for number one in the US with Titanic, then in its thirteenth week, so DiCaprio's only real rival was himself.

Playing twins in a 1998 film earned DiCaprio a Golden Raspberry in which category?

Worst Screen Couple. The Razzies listed the winners as 'Leonardo DiCaprio and Leonardo DiCaprio', counting the twins as a pair, on the night Bruce Willis was named Worst Actor.

DiCaprio left an early version of American Psycho after disagreements with which director?

Oliver Stone. He had replaced Mary Harron, who was pushed out for resisting DiCaprio's casting; when star and director could not agree and both left, Harron returned and made the film with Christian Bale.

The Beach (2000) was adapted from a 1996 novel by which author?

Alex Garland. The film made its location, Thailand's Maya Bay, so famous that crowds of visitors wrecked its coral, and the authorities closed the beach to tourists in 2018 so it could recover.

DiCaprio says he was rejected for Moulin Rouge! (2001) because of his poor what?

Singing. He tried 'Lean on Me' with the director and a pianist, and when he went for the high note the director told him he didn't know if the conversation should continue.

DiCaprio and which close friend blocked the US release of their improvised film Don's Plum?

Tobey Maguire. They said the film, shot in six days and largely improvised, was only ever meant to be a short, and a 1999 legal settlement barred its release in the US and Canada.

Which Star Wars prequel role did DiCaprio turn down?

Anakin Skywalker. He met George Lucas about the part but said he 'just didn't feel ready to take that dive', so Hayden Christensen became the future Darth Vader in Attack of the Clones.

Catch Me If You Can is based on the life of which real con artist?

Frank Abagnale Jr. The film follows his own account of posing as a pilot, a doctor and a lawyer while still a teenager, but later investigations found most of it unsupported: his best con may be his life story.

Who played the FBI agent chasing DiCaprio in Catch Me If You Can?

Tom Hanks. He went from playing a gangster in Road to Perdition to the dogged FBI man Carl Hanratty, who in the film ends by getting his quarry out of prison to help the Bureau catch other forgers.

What is the name of DiCaprio's Irish-American gang leader in Gangs of New York?

Amsterdam Vallon. Martin Scorsese had long struggled to get his pet project financed, and it was only when DiCaprio, fresh from Titanic, wanted the part that the film finally took off.

Which of these production companies was founded by DiCaprio?

Appian Way. It shares its name with the ancient Roman road, and DiCaprio says he set it up to find unusual stories and keep too many hands from turning them into something else.

Which real-life figure did DiCaprio play in Martin Scorsese's The Aviator?

Howard Hughes. DiCaprio first developed the biopic with Michael Mann, who was expected to direct it; in the end Mann stayed on as a producer and handed the film to Martin Scorsese.

In The Departed, DiCaprio's undercover state trooper infiltrates the Irish Mob in which city?

Boston. DiCaprio went there before the shoot to meet people with real ties to the Irish Mob, and put on 15 pounds of muscle to play trooper Billy Costigan.

DiCaprio's role in The Departed was campaigned as supporting, but which co-star landed the Oscar nomination instead?

Mark Wahlberg. Warner Bros. pushed DiCaprio as a supporting actor so he would not compete with his own lead in Blood Diamond; voters nominated him for that film and gave the supporting slot to Sergeant Dignam.

In Blood Diamond, DiCaprio's diamond smuggler Danny Archer is a native of which country?

Rhodesia. Archer says his parents were killed there and he fled to South Africa as a boy; DiCaprio spent months in Africa before the shoot, interviewing and recording people to master the accent.

Which 2007 environmental documentary did DiCaprio produce, co-write and narrate?

The 11th Hour. Its title outlived the film: in 2013 his foundation held an art auction at Christie's under the same name and raised more than $38 million for wildlife and environmental protection.

DiCaprio's production company made Greensburg, a series about a tornado-hit town rebuilding sustainably in which state?

Kansas. An EF5 tornado flattened Greensburg in May 2007, and instead of abandoning the town its people rebuilt it around clean energy, planning a wind farm to power every home and business.

Who directed Revolutionary Road, which reunited DiCaprio with Kate Winslet in 2008?

Sam Mendes. Winslet, then his wife, read the script first and brought both men in: once her husband had agreed to direct, she approached her old Titanic co-star.

Shutter Island is based on a 2003 novel by which author?

Dennis Lehane. DiCaprio called the shoot 'really very traumatic', one of the most intense of his career, and said it gave him bloodcurdling nightmares of murder.

In Inception, which object tells DiCaprio's Dom Cobb whether he is still in a dream?

A spinning top. The film cuts to black before we see whether it falls; DiCaprio had swapped his usual $20 million fee for a share of ticket sales, a gamble that made him about $50 million.

Who directed DiCaprio as FBI director J. Edgar Hoover in 2011?

Clint Eastwood. He shot the film in just 39 days, and DiCaprio reportedly took a pay cut of about 90 percent to make it: proof, his director said, that he wanted to vary his career.

What is the name of the plantation owner DiCaprio plays in Django Unchained?

Calvin Candie. In the dinner scene DiCaprio cut his hand open slamming it on the table and carried on in character with blood pouring from it; Tarantino kept the take in the film.

Who directed DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby in the 2013 adaptation of The Great Gatsby?

Baz Luhrmann. He got the idea on the Trans-Siberian railway in 2004, listening to the novel as an audiobook over red wine while Siberia went past the window.

DiCaprio beat which actor in a bidding war for the rights to Jordan Belfort's memoir?

Brad Pitt. His side lost to DiCaprio and Warner Bros. in 2007, but backers then wanted the excess toned down and the film stalled for years, until independent financiers told Scorsese not to pull his punches.

Who played Donnie Azoff, the business partner of DiCaprio's character in The Wolf of Wall Street?

Jonah Hill. Desperate to work with Martin Scorsese, he took the actors' union minimum of about $60,000 for the seven-month shoot, and came away with an Oscar nomination.

Virunga, which DiCaprio executive-produced, is about people protecting which animals?

Mountain gorillas. The film premiered just two days after the park's chief warden, Emmanuel de Merode, who appears in it, was shot and wounded in a roadside ambush; he survived the attack.

Which fur trapper did DiCaprio play in The Revenant?

Hugh Glass. The real trapper is said to have crawled some 200 miles to safety after a grizzly mauled him and his companions abandoned him; playing him finally won DiCaprio his Oscar.

On The Revenant, DiCaprio ate a raw slab of liver from which animal?

Bison. The props team had made a fake liver out of jelly, but DiCaprio worried it didn't look right and ate the real thing, saying the membrane burst in his mouth like a balloon.

Which fading TV western star did DiCaprio play in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood?

Rick Dalton. The scene in which he fluffs his lines and then rages at himself in his trailer was not in the script: DiCaprio pushed for it, and Tarantino built the meltdown around his idea.

Who co-starred with DiCaprio as the other astronomer in Don't Look Up?

Jennifer Lawrence. Adam McKay wrote the part of the other astronomer for her, whereas DiCaprio spent four or five months trading script ideas with him before he would sign on.

First cast as an FBI agent in Killers of the Flower Moon, DiCaprio instead played whom?

Ernest Burkhart. He pushed to play the villain's nephew instead of the hero; the rewrite made a moodier character study that Paramount reportedly found less commercial, and Apple took over the financing.

DiCaprio co-founded the Venturi team in which racing series?

Formula E. The Monaco-based team joined the all-electric championship for its first season; DiCaprio said the planet's future 'depends on our ability to embrace fuel-efficient, clean-energy vehicles'.

Which UN title, later shared with Malala Yousafzai, did Ban Ki-moon give DiCaprio in 2014 for his climate work?

Messenger of Peace. He was named ahead of that month's UN Climate Summit, where he told the assembled world leaders that he pretends for a living, 'but you do not'.