These days, Leonardo DiCaprio is notoriously picky when it comes to the movies he stars in, but his career could have taken a very different path had he said yes to a handful of major blockbusters he was offered following the success of Titanic. While he came close to playing Spider-Man in James Cameron’s take on the wall-crawler, The Revenant star also nearly ended up in Batman Forever and the Star Wars prequels.
Asked in a recent interview how close he came to taking on the role of Robin, the actor revealed:
“I never screen-tested. I had a meeting with Joel Schumacher. It was just one meeting and, no, I didn’t end up doing it. I don’t think I [wanted the role], no (laughs). As I recall I took the meeting, but didn’t want to play the role. Joel Schumacher is a very talented director but I don’t think I was ready for anything like that.”
It sounds like DiCaprio realized fairly early on that he would have made a mistake by starring in Batman Forever then, and based on how both that and Batman and Robin turned out, it’s fair to say that he made the right choice by saying no.
Another huge franchise which the actor avoided is of course Star Wars, and after confirming that he met with George Lucas about playing Anakin Skywalker, DiCaprio once again stated that he didn’t feel ready for a role like that. That seems like a polite way of saying that he knows it would have been a mistake to star in movies like Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, as you have to believe that both of those would have his hurt his career.
They certainly didn’t do any favours for Hayden Christensen anyway, but did DiCaprio condemn the Star Wars prequels by saying no, or did he save himself from a career ending role? Let us know your thoughts below.