Leonardo DiCaprio Almost Played James Dean in '90s Biopic but Looked 'Too Young' in Screen Test

Mar. 15, 2025

Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection, Rose Hartman/Archive Photos/Getty

Leonardo DiCapriowas deemed too young-looking to portrayJames Deanon the big screen.

Heatdirector Michael Mann toldDeadlineWednesday that he abandoned making a biopic about the iconic Hollywood star — whodiedin a car crash at the age of 24 back in 1955 — after DiCaprio came off too young for the part when he was interested in doing the film.

“It was a brilliant screenplay. And then it’s, ‘Who the hell could play James Dean?’ I found a chap who could play James Dean, but he was too young. It was Leo,” said Mann, 79.

“We did a screen test that’s quite amazing,” he recalled. “I think he must’ve been 19 at the time. From one angle, he totally had it with him. I mean, it’s brilliance. He would turn his face in one direction and we see a vision of James Dean, and then he’d turn his face another direction and it’s, ‘No, that’s a young kid.’ I found the absolutely perfect act of the play, in about three years from that.”

Mann joked DiCaprio, now 47, “respectfully undid the James Dean bio for me.”

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Back in 2016, the Oscar winner recalled the audition in an interview withDeadline, also agreeing he “looked really young” at the time.

“I did a screen test with him, I think I was 18. It turned out pretty well. We saw clips ofGiant, and then he put me in the back of the car with that cowboy hat. But I was a very young-looking kid, even when I was young,” said DiCaprio. “[Mann] decided to wait a couple of years, but I…looked really young.”

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source: people.com