Why Leonardo DiCaprio Turned Down A Star Wars Role

May 2024 ยท 2 minute read

Attack of the Clones opened the same year as Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York, in 2002, which also featured god-tier thespian Daniel Day Lewis. At the time, this was the choice DiCaprio faced. Star Wars films are among the hugest cultural phenomena of our time, no matter how well-received critically, but DiCaprio was clearly thinking about his career trajectory. 

Leading up to the release of Attack of the Clones, George Lucas had been, according to Vanity Fair, sifting through hundreds of actors to find the perfect Anakin, and approached DiCaprio directly, as reported by NME. For his part, DiCaprio said of Star Wars, "I just didn't feel ready to take that dive. At that point." As it happens, DiCaprio also turned down two rather huge comic book superhero offers, as well: he had previously been approached for the role of Robin in Batman Forever (the bat-nipple one) and Spider-Man (presumably the James Cameron-directed version that never happened). Regarding these he said, "They're getting better and better as far as complex characters in these movies," implying that he wouldn't necessarily be opposed to such roles in the future.

Whatever the difference is between "art," commercial art, fine art, and so on, it's clear which side of the discussion DiCaprio falls on. To be fair, though, his career would have taken a very different path if he'd been stuck in the Vader suit at the end of Revenge of the Sith.

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