Director of the cult classic Romeo + Juliet Baz Luhrmann reveals how he found the inspiration for his lead

Romeo + Juliet, directed by Baz Luhrmann, was released in 1996 and starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes as Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet, respectively. Director Baz Luhrmann has recently revealed in an interview how he found the inspiration to cast DiCaprio as one of his leads in Romeo + Juliet. Luhrmann had discovered DiCaprio in a magazine, which led him to be the director's only choice for the character.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly at the Toronto International Film Festival, Baz Luhrmann said,

"I mean, there was only Leonardo. I never actually auditioned any other person."

Baz Luhrmann's inspiration behind casting his lead in Romeo + Juliet

Leonardo DiCaprio started his career in the 1980s. While he had proved himself as an actor in What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), Romeo + Juliet was the first film that brought him international fame. Romeo + Juliet is a modern adaptation of William Shakespeare's famous 1597 play, Romeo and Juliet. This was then followed by Titanic (1997) and other films.

Opening Ceremony - The 78th Annual Cannes Film Festival - Source: Getty

Baz Luhrmann had seen DiCaprio's picture in a magazine and immediately knew he wanted to cast him as Romeo. As Luhrmann told Entertainment Weekly, when the film was in its initial stages, he thought,

"Oh, how am I going to make this? And then I saw a picture of what I thought was a model or something. It might have been in PEOPLE magazine or something."

He elaborated,

"That's how Romeo should look. And someone said to me, 'Oh, he's actually an actor.'"

Luhrmann did not know that DiCaprio was already an actor by that time. But sometimes filmmakers just know who to cast from just one picture, and thus, from just one look at the actor's picture, Luhrmann knew that he was the right person to play Romeo. Fortunately, DiCaprio turned out to be not only an actor but also someone who did justice to the role. Luhrmann also said that Leonardo DiCaprio wasn't on board for Romeo + Juliet from the beginning. As Luhrmann said, when he first started to

"workshop the idea, because [DiCaprio] wasn't really sure,"

Luhrmann continued saying that DiCaprio,

"cashed in his business class tickets, brought all his friends, and we have, today, still the videos of him and his friends doing the scenes. The rest is history really."

While Leonardo DiCaprio wasn't completely on board initially, eventually it all worked out, and the film was a success. The other cast members of Romeo + Juliet included Brian Dennehy as Ted Montague, Christina Pickles as Caroline Montague, Paul Sorvino as Fulgencio Capulet, and Diane Venora as Gloria Capulet, among others. Baz Luhrmann is not only the director behind the film, but also the producer and co-writer.

Baz Luhrmann is also known for directing Strictly Ballroom (1992), Moulin Rouge! (2001), Australia (2008), The Great Gatsby (2013), Elvis (2022), and EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert (2025).

Years have gone by, but Baz Luhrmann still speaks highly of Leonardo DiCaprio. To Entertainment Weekly, he said,

"Leo has a wonderful, quite unique quality of being both a tremendous actor and a star. Some people are stars and some people are great character actors, but he's both. He's a character actor who has star quality. He illuminates the screen."

Romeo + Juliet is available for streaming on Prime Video and Disney+.