Would a DiCaprio by any other name be as successful?

An actor's early days of trying to make it remind me of one of my favorite bedtime stories

- LZ GRANDERSON COLUMNIST

ELOISA SANCHEZ Getty Images

LEONARDO DICAPRIO and Benicio del Toro promoting their film "One Battle After Another."

OSCAR WINNER Leonardo DiCaprio shared a story from his childhood recently that caught a lot of attention. Apparently, when he was starting out as a child actor, an agent wanted his stage name to be Lenny Williams because "Leonardo DiCaprio" was "too ethnic": "They're never gonna hire you," the agent allegedly told DiCaprio before he became a household name.

In a conversation on the podcast "New Heights," the actor said his father put an end to the nonsense about a name change.

Though in fairness to the agent, Ramon Antonio Gerardo Estevez changed his name to Martin Sheen and did OK with that, and George Michael was born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou. In fact, Benicio del Toro, DiCaprio's costar in the upcoming film "One Battle After Another," said one of his early agents wanted him to be "Benny Del."

Their early days of trying to make it sound just like a fable....

Once upon a time, an inspiring young actor with bushy red hair and a toothy gapped smile decided to move from Cliffside Park, N.J., to La La Land. After days of fast food, he was looking forward to something authentic. That's when, while driving down Somestreet Boulevard, he stumbled across a brightly painted food truck with a neon sign that flashed "The Mystic Taco."

Intrigued, he parked and made his way to the truck.