Here are 29 interesting Leonardo DiCaprio facts.
1-5 Leonardo DiCaprio Facts
1. Leonardo DiCaprio bought an island in Belize 10 years ago and built the world’s first eco-restorative resort that restores the island’s over-fished waters, coastline, and forest. – Source
2. Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet helped pay the nursing home fees for the last Titanic survivor so she wouldn’t have to sell anymore Titanic mementos to raise cash. – Source
3. Leonardo DiCaprio was named Leonardo because his pregnant mother was looking at a Leonardo da Vinci painting in a museum in Italy when he first kicked. – Source
4. Leonardo DiCaprio blocked a film he was in from being released in the U.S. and Canada. The producer of the film has released it on the Internet and drafted a letter to Leo about it. – Source
5. Leonardo DiCaprio turned down the role for Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars prequels. – Source
6-10 Leonardo DiCaprio Facts
6. Leonardo DiCaprio spent part of his childhood in Germany with his grandparents and speaks German fluently. – Source
7. Leonardo DiCaprio was originally selected for the role of Patrick Bateman in American Psycho but he reluctantly did not take it as most of his fans were pre-teen girls. – Source
8. There was an auction to win a trip to space accompanied by Leonardo DiCaprio. – Source
9. During the filming of the Wolf of Wall Street, Jonah Hill took revenge on Leonardo DiCaprio by giving him food poisoning. By improvising a line, Hill made DiCaprio eat the last piece of raw yellowtail sushi. DiCaprio had to repeat this 70 times. Only Hill and Martin Scorsese found it funny. – Source
10. Leonardo DiCaprio was originally first choice to play Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds. – Source
11-15 Leonardo DiCaprio Facts
11. During the dinner scene in Django Unchained, Leonardo DiCaprio slammed his fist on the table, breaking a glass and cutting his hand severely. DiCaprio never broke character and finished the scene with real blood dripping down his hand. – Source
12. When Leonardo DiCaprio originally tried to get an agent they wanted to change his name to Lenny Williams due to his name sounding too ethnic. – Source
13. Leonardo DiCaprio owns the live-action rights to an Akira movie. – Source
14. Leonardo DiCaprio was once the “leader” of an infamous group dubbed by Hollywood as Pussy Posse. Notable members included Tobey Mcguire and David Blaine. – Source
15. Titanic with Leonardo DiCaprio was so popular that 7% of American teen girls had seen it twice within five weeks. The phenomenon of girls repeatedly watching the film was nicknamed “Leo-Mania”. – Source
16-20 Leonardo DiCaprio Facts
16. The Leonardo DiCaprio haircut from Titanic was so popular among Afghan youths that it was banned by the Taliban and barbers went to jail for giving it. – Source
17. Leonardo DiCaprio spent days at a home for mentally disabled teens in order to get into his character, Arnie Grape. His performance was so well received he earned his first Oscar and Golden Globe nominations. – Source
18. In 2005, Leonardo DiCaprio was assaulted by model Aretha Wilson, who hit him over the head with a broken bottle at an after party. Wilson was sentenced to two years in prison. – Source
19. Leonardo DiCaprio has never done drugs and had to get taught how to play being high by drug experts. – Source
20. In his acting debut, Leonardo DiCaprio was kicked off the set of the long-running, popular children’s TV series “Romper Room” at age 5 for being disruptive. – Source
21-25 Leonardo DiCaprio Facts
21. Leonardo DiCaprio is one of the two actors that, no matter “how bad the film is”, do well at the box office. CinemaScore’s CEO says, “We’ll give a movie a C+, and Leonardo just pulls the box office with him.” – Source
22. Leonardo DiCaprio has won a Razzie Award in 1999 for Worst Screen Couple. – Source
23. Leonardo DiCaprio got his big break when he was handpicked by Robert De Niro to play the lead role in “This Boy’s Life”. – Source
24. In 2009, Nicolas Cage outbid Leonardo DiCaprio for a $276,000 Dinosaur Skull. – Source
25. Leonardo DiCaprio may have potentially played Gerry Lane in his own World War Z movie if his production company didn’t lose the bidding war to Brad Pitt’s production company in order to secure the screen rights to the novel. – Source
26-29 Leonardo DiCaprio Facts
26. Leonardo DiCaprio is an ardent environmentalist. He founded the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation to support sustainability efforts, is a board member of the Natural Resources Defense Council and Global Green USA. – Source
27. Leonardo DiCaprio has said that playing Arnie (What’s Eating Gilbert Grape) was “the most fun I’ve ever had”. – Source
28. Leonardo DiCaprio earned $2.5Mil for Titanic in 1997. In 2000 he was paid $20Mil for The Beach. His pay per movie has remained pretty much $20Mil per movie since, except for J Edgar, Django Unchained and The Wolf of Wall Street. – Source
29. Leonardo DiCaprio was the first choice to play Dirk Diggler in Boogie Nights, but had already signed on for Titanic and couldn’t do both. – Source
