Agent said my name was too ethnic: Leonardo DiCaprio

Los Angeles: Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio says his agent thought the actor's name was "too ethnic" and advised him to change it to Lenny Williams instead.

DiCaprio, whose credits include notable roles in projects such as the classic Titanic, sci-fi Inception and recent Killers of the Flower Moon, recalled the incident and said it was his father, George DiCaprio, who was completely opposed to the name change.

"I finally got an agent. They said, ‘Your name is too ethnic," DiCaprio said on the New Heights podcast.

"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... 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," he added.

The actor said his father came across a headshot featuring the new stage name, "ripped it up, and he said, ‘Over my dead body.'” DiCaprio's latest work is One Battle After Another, which released on September 26. Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, the film also featured Sean Penn and Benicio del Toro in pivotal roles.

It revolves around DiCaprio's character Bob Ferguson, who is a washed-up revolutionary living in a state of stoned paranoia, surviving off-grid with his spirited and self-reliant daughter, Willa.