Leonardo DiCaprio is very discerning when it comes to selecting his film roles. From 2010 to 2023, he participated in just 10 feature films, with seven of them — “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Don’t Look Up,” “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood,” “The Revenant,” “The Wolf of Wall Street,” “Django Unchained,” and “Inception” — earning best picture nominations at the Academy Awards. His most recent project, the 2025 action-comedy directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, “One Battle After Another,” has already been hailed as one of the top-reviewed films of the year, further illustrating how DiCaprio prioritizes quality over quantity when choosing his roles. It is on track to be considered one of the best films of his career.

Nobody can blame A-listers for being selective with their projects, but DiCaprio has actually voiced regrets about being too picky in his younger years, especially in the immediate aftermath of his breakout “Titanic” stardom. As reported by E! News, when he visited “Today” during the promotional run for “Django Unchained,” DiCaprio said, “I probably should have done more movies during that time period,” adding that he “took a solid break” after “Titanic.” The record-breaking success of “Titanic” had every studio in Hollywood begging DiCaprio to work with them, while also affording DiCaprio the luxury to only take the roles he really wanted. Even so, it took a few years before DiCaprio truly put that luxury to good use, as his immediate post-“Titanic” career was a little rocky.

Between 1998 and 2001, the era in which Leonardo DiCaprio would later wish he took on more roles, the star appeared in four movies — but only two of them were true post-“Titanic” projects. “The Man in the Iron Mask,” in which DiCaprio played both the title character and his twin brother, King Louis XIV, hit theaters in March 1998, while “Titanic” was still topping the box office. It made decent money but received poor reviews, and DiCaprio’s dual performances got a Razzie Award for worst screen couple.

DiCaprio’s first true post-“Titanic” performance was in the 1998 Woody Allen film “Celebrity,” where he spoofed his own movie star image in a supporting role. This self-aware performance is the only thing anyone remembers from “Celebrity,” a flop that’s generally considered lesser Allen. Next up for DiCaprio was playing an American backpacking through Thailand in Danny Boyle’s 2000 drama “The Beach.” Based on the book of the same name by Alex Garland (who’d later write “28 Days Later” for Boyle), the adaptation got lousy reviews and fared poorly at the U.S. box office.

The strangest of DiCaprio’s post-“Titanic” credits is the one that was never meant to be seen. DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire agreed to star in a mostly-improvised short film titled “Don’s Plum,” filmed pre-“Titanic,” but director R.D. Robb expanded it into a feature film without their permission. The truth is that no contracts were ever made and all the agreements were gentlemen’s ones, so court cases ensued. It ultimately played at festivals in 2001, but the NSFW film, which DiCaprio regrets making, is banned from release in the United States. 

Leonardo DiCaprio turned down a number of huge roles for his big “Titanic” follow-up. Some serious contenders were Tom Ripley in “The Talented Mr. Ripley” and Patrick Bateman in “American Psycho.” Matt Damon begged to play Ripley after DiCaprio declined, and director Anthony Minghella was convinced after seeing Damon’s work in “Good Will Hunting.” In the case of “American Psycho,” Christian Bale was always director Mary Harron’s first choice for Bateman, and DiCaprio’s brief involvement was the result of studio meddling. It’s rumored that journalist and feminist icon Gloria Steinem convinced DiCaprio to decline “American Psycho,” arguing it would be wrong to follow up a film so beloved by teen girls with one filled with violence against women.

DiCaprio also wanted to avoid effects-heavy films after “Titanic,” turning down the role of Neo in “The Matrix” (which went to Keanu Reeves) and Anakin Skywalker in “Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones” (which went to Hayden Christensen). In 2002, the same year “Attack of the Clones” was released, DiCaprio starred in two movies from world-class filmmakers: Steven Spielberg’s “Catch Me If You Can” and Martin Scorsese’s “Gangs of New York,” the latter of which kickstarted a working relationship that’s still bearing fruit to this day. DiCaprio’s true post-“Titanic” comeback had finally arrived and he would soon embark on a run of films that cemented him as one of the greatest working actors in Tinseltown.