Leonardo DiCaprio could have been in 'Star Wars.' And 'Batman.' And 'Spider-Man'

Leonardi DiCaprio has played many a notable character: Jack Dawson. Jay Gatsby. Romeo. J. Edgar Hoover. That kid in Growing Pains. But you might not know that he had opportunities to some other well-known pop culture roles: Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars, Peter Parker in Spider-Man and Robin in Batman Forever.

DiCaprio opened up about being approached for (and turning down) all three roles in a recent interview with ShortList. He doesn't go into much detail for why he turned down each part, usually falling back on the answer that he simple didn't want to "take that dive."

He did say that he didn't really want to play Robin, though. When asked if he dodged a bullet (as Batman Forever is generally considered to be a poor movie), his only response is a laugh.

It's easy to look back at the Star Wars movies in particular and conclude that DiCaprio made the right call. After all, the prequel movies are largely looked down upon by fans today, and you can imagine people calling them a low point for DiCaprio's career. However, one of the problems (of which there were many) with those films was subpar acting from the lead characters. So who knows? Maybe a Star Wars trilogy with DiCaprio as the boy who would become Darth Vader would have faired better than the movies we got?

In any case, he won't rule out some super geeky roles in his future. When asked if he would like to play a superhero, DiCaprio responded, "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."

He gives more informative answers to other questions (about being nominated for an Oscar at the age of 19, giving a lot of his money to charity, etc.) in the full interview.

On the rumor that he screen-tested for Batman Forever:

"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. ... 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."