Leonardo DiCaprio Talks About Turning Down The STAR WARS Prequels and BATMAN FOREVER

Leonardo DiCaprio is one of my favorite working actors, and that's mostly because he's made tremendously smart decisions throughout his career about the parts he's played and the people he's worked with. A large part of being conscientious about what parts to play involves knowing which parts you shouldn't play, and in a new interview with Shortlist, DiCaprio talks about why he turned down roles in the Star Wars prequels and Batman Forever:

Did that include playing Robin in Batman Forever? There’s a rumour you screen-tested for it...

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.

Did you actually want the role?

Er, I don’t think I did, 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.

Do you feel like you dodged a bullet?

(Laughs.)

Were you in talks to play Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars prequels?

I did have a meeting with George Lucas about that as well, yes.

What happened?

Same scenario (laughs).

He wanted you, but you didn’t fancy it?

Um, right. Exactly.

Why?

Again, just didn’t feel ready to take that dive. At that point.

The actor also talks about how how he was once in discussions to play Spider-Man, and how, though he had some reservations about it in the past, he's no longer opposed to playing a superhero:

How close did you come to playing Spider-Man before your friend Tobey Maguire took the part?

Er, that was another one of those situations, similar to Robin, where I didn’t feel ready to put on that suit yet. They got in touch with me.

Would you like to play a superhero?

You never know. You never know. They’re getting better and better as far as complex characters in these movies. I haven’t yet. But no, I don’t rule out anything.

You can (and should) see DiCaprio in theaters now in The Revenant, and if the film isn't open in a theater near you yet, it should be expanding in the coming weeks.