While still at the very beginning of his career, Leonardo DiCaprio refused a very interesting proposal from Disney studios, and an important role in a famous feature film of the 90s.
Winner of the Best Actor Oscar for The Revenant in 2016, Leonardo DiCaprio is one of those Hollywood celebrities whose filmography has practically no false notes.
At nearly 50, the Titanic star has toured with Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Christopher Nolan, Quentin Tarantino and Clint Eastwood, among others.
But before starting this beautiful journey, when he was still only fifteen years old, the budding actor necessarily had to start with more modest projects, often opting for surprising roles in order to forge a unique career start and get noticed. Even if it means, sometimes, refusing other more attractive offers.
Thus, in the early 90s, after having played in the series What’s new, doctor?, in Critters 3, and especially in the drama Blessures Secrètes alongside Robert de Niro, he was offered by Disney a major role in Hocus Pocus.
In this horror comedy by Kenny Ortega, he was supposed to play the character of Max, a teenager responsible for waking up three witches on Halloween night.
Paramount Pictures
Even if the famous studios had offered him “more money than[il] can’t[t] never dream of it”as he had declared in 2014 at the microphone of Variety, DiCaprio had decided to decline the proposal, and the role had then been entrusted to the young Omri Katz.
Instead, the actor had opted for a more confidential project and for a more demanding character: that of Arnie, the little brother of Gilbert Grape (Johnny Depp), suffering from mental disorders in the drama of Lasse Hallström.
“I don’t know where this audacity came from”he confided to Variety, about his refusal to Disney.
“I lived in an environment where people try to influence you by telling you to make a lot of money, to strike while the iron is hot. But if there’s anything I’m proud of, it’s is to have been a young man who stuck to his guns.”
In 1994, thanks to his role in Gilbert Grape, DiCaprio indeed won a first Oscar nomination for best supporting role.
(Re)discover the trailer for “Gilbert Grape”…