Titanic Almost Ruined Leonardo DiCaprio's Career: 'It Made Me Want to Stop Acting'

Titanic is largely considered to be one of the greatest movies of all time and one of James Cameron 's best projects.

Its multiple Academy Awards, insane box office revenues, and overwhelming popularity all over the world confirm it every step of the way, too. And indisputably, it boosted its young actors' careers to the moon.

However, as it turns out, not everyone was happy with the movie: in fact, its lead actor wasn't. Young Leo DiCaprio didn't mind the film itself but he just hated the way it impacted his image in the industry.

He was so desperate he even considered quitting acting at that point, and that tells you something.

The thing is, thanks to his roles as Romeo and Jack Dawson, Leonardo was generally seen as a sweet pretty boy, a romantic story material — and nothing else.

For an ambitious young actor, it was just unbearable: he wanted to grow as a professional, but the attitude he was getting blocked so many projects for him.

"I hated the way I was turned into a pretty boy as if that was all that was expected of me. It made me almost want to stop acting for a while because the attention that was focused on me was not where I wanted to take my career," shared the actor in his interview with The Fan Carpet.

He also admitted that after Titanic, he started actively avoiding any romantic roles.

DiCaprio was getting one too many invitations to those but he was adamant in his decision: the young star wanted to become well-rounded and thought that acting in romantic movies would've got him stuck there forever.

Instead of accepting those offers, Leonardo started auditioning for roles in criminal dramas and many other genres — and, judging by how his Catch Me If You Can, Blood Diamond, Gangs of New York, and many other movies turned out, he made the right bet and came out victorious in his rebellion against the stereotype.

Source: The Fan Carpet