David Letterman’s constant interruptions made Leonardo DiCaprio’s interview painfully awkward
David Letterman's interview with Leonardo DiCaprio was all things awkward! In 1995, the Oscar-winning actor appeared on an episode of 'The Late Show with David Letterman' to promote his sports thriller film 'The Basketball Diaries,' and the fans felt that the veteran talk show host's interview with DiCaprio was simply a big blunder. Throughout the entire interview, Letterman interrupted DiCaprio several times, and the viewers weren't amused by that. As per a report by The Things, Letterman kicked off the interview by asking DiCaprio, "Tell me a little about your name if you don't mind. Leonardo DiCaprio. It is a very rhythmic, very poetic-sounding name. It's very nice. Lovely," to which the latter replied, "Thank you."
Shortly afterward, Letterman questioned, "Is there a story about it? Do your parents have a reason they named you that?" In his response, 'The Wolf of Wall Street' star said, "Actually, I do have a story about my name." A curious Letterman quipped, "Let me hear it." DiCaprio began narrating the story behind his name: "The first time I got an agent, they thought my name..." Following that, Letterman barged in and asked, "How old were you?" to which DiCaprio retorted, "I was about six years old. Seven years old."
Instantly, the 77-year-old comedian asked, "You got an agent at six years old?" to which DiCaprio answered, "I tried to get an agent, but I didn't succeed because they wanted to change my name to Lenny Williams. They thought my name was a little too ethnic, so they sort of dissected it and said, Hey, Leonardo, Lenny, my middle name's Wilhelm, so they changed that to Williams. I didn't want..." Then, Letterman intervened again and uttered, "Let's get back to your given name again. Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio."
After a while, DiCaprio said, "Yeah. That's my name." On the other hand, Letterman exclaimed, "Wow. That's a good one. That's great," to which DiCaprio responded, "Thanks." Letterman wasn't ready to leave the topic and went on to ask DiCaprio, "Why is it that your folks selected an Italian-sounding name and then a German-sounding name?" While shedding light on his name, DiCaprio stated, "Well, my mother's German, and my dad's Italian." At that moment, Letterman remarked, "There you go. There's an answer for every story in this life."
Once the episode dropped, the fans called out Letterman for interrupting DiCaprio from start to finish during the entire interview. One social media user wrote, "When the interviewer loves the sound of their own voice." Another user tried to paraphrase the interview by saying, "Do you have a story? Let me hear it." "Well-" "How old were you?" Followed by a third user who commented, “There’s an answer for every story in this life." Another netizen chimed in, "Yeah, if you let people answer your questions, there sure are. Fascinating."
Since then, DiCaprio hasn't made another appearance on 'The Late Show with David Letterman.' However, DiCaprio has appeared on 'The Tonight Show with Jay Leno' thrice, 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show' three times, and 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' twice. On the work front, DiCaprio is set to appear in Paul Thomas Anderson's 'One Battle After Another,' which is slated to hit the screens on September 26, 2025.
