Leonardo DiCaprio’s First Movie Role – Critters 3 (1991)

For many people Leonardo DiCaprio is as close to a classic Hollywood golden age actor that we have today, but what was his first movie?

Well, it was the third entry in the Critters franchise, Critters 3 and that is what we are talking about today. We will look at the early part of DiCaprio’s career and see what he was up to before he was the king of the world, before his adventure on the island, and before he cut his hand for real on a piece of glass!

The following video, part of the series “Celebrities’ First Movie Appearance”, shows DiCaprio in his very first movie role in Critters 3:

Furry Maniacs From Space! 

Before we get to Leo’s first role, we do have to talk about the Critters franchise. This series blended horror and comedy together and the first two movies were about an alien race called the Krites that have escaped from their intergalactic prison and have made their way to Earth where they crashed on a small farm in the town of Grover’s Bend. Handyman, Charlie McFadden leads the charge with two intergalactic bounty hunters to put a stop to the furry critters. The first two movies were a pretty big hit when they were released in 1986 and 1988. 

Help, There Are Critters In My VCR

For Leonardo DiCaprio’s first movie, he would not be gracing the silver screen! Even though the first two Critters movies were a success, Critters 3 and Critters 4 were shot back to back (DiCaprio would not return for the fourth movie) with the sole intent of being released straight to video. Critters 3 would be released in 1991 and then 1992 would see the release of Critters 4. In the late 80s and the early 90s, home video rentals really blew up and Critters 3 and 4, despite not having a theatrical release did get some hype via posters and large standees that were on display in the video stores, some of these becoming real collector’s items today. 

A Big Part For A First Role

You may think that DiCaprio’s first movie may have had him playing some kind of extra or a quick one or two minute scene, but that is not actually the case. His first role sees him playing a kid called Josh whose stepfather is a jerk, but they run into Charlie McFadden who warns them about the Critters and wouldn’t you know it, Josh and a few others end up on the wrong end of the Critters appetite! It is a pretty solid role for such a young actor to get and even though it was a straight to video movie, it is impressive that he got such a featured role so early on in his movie career. 

Paying His Dues On The Small Screen

While Critters 3 is the first film showing Leo, this would not be where he would start his acting career. He would play the role of a character called Glen on two episodes of the 1989 series, The New Lassie, and then in the early 90s he would have a few other notable appearances in other shows. He played a young Mason Capwell for five episodes on Santa Barbara and he also had a small uncredited role on an episode of Roseanne. However, it was his 12-episode run as Luke Brower on Growing Pains in 1990 and 1991 that most people remember from the early days of Leonardo DiCaprio.

Quite The Jump!

Hey, Critters 3 may not have been the greatest movie ever made, but it was DiCaprio’s film debut. However, if you want to get technical about it, his first real theatrical movie was This Boy’s Life which was released in 1993. It is a coming-of-age drama about the writer, Tobias Wolf, which is the character Leo plays. A fun bit of movie lore/trivia is that it was Robert DeNiro himself who picked DiCaprio for this role and the two of them would go on to appear in more movies in the coming years and even decades! A neat bit of trivia about Leonardo’s first theatrical role is that one of the actors he beat out for the role was Christian Bale! 

Leonardo DiCaprio Is Not A Fan Of Critters 3

While the Critters series does have its fans, most fans love the first two movies and then tolerate the other two. This might have the honor of being called “the movie where it all started”, but to say that he is not a huge fan is a bit of an understatement. He has not only said that it is not a good movie, but that it was a “lousy role” and perhaps one of the worst movies of all time. To be fair, he has always seemed like he says this in jest and it is great to see that he has a good sense of humor about the early part of his career.

You Can’t Keep A Good Critter Down

As Critters had a bit of a cult following, the series would see a bit of a reboot thanks to the 2019 TV series Critters: A New Binge which was done by Shudder and released online. There was also a fifth movie released in 2019 called Critters Attack. Both of these were not exactly well received and while they certainly had more gore than those original movies had, they lacked the rather campy humor that fans loved about those original movies. 

A Truly Carnivorous Collection

If you want to see DiCaprio’s first role in glorious HD you now can! There was an awesome Critters collection called Critters: Four Course Feast collector’s edition that brought all four movies (including Critters 3) to Blu-Ray. Not only that, it comes in a fantastic collector’s edition box where each movie has this awesome 80s style art on the box and you even get a collection of really cool art cards. There is not actually a ton of merchandise out there for Critters so this is a must for a Critters collector. However, we would also argue that if you are a huge fan of him, you need this in your collection as this is DiCaprio “numero uno” and this is the best that it has ever looked and let’s be honest, there is no way, Critters 3 is getting a 4K remaster! 

Despite going from a teen heartthrob to one of the most critically acclaimed and well respected award winning actors of all time, the fact that Leo’s debut role was in Critters 3 is kind of awesome! It is so much fun to see a young DiCaprio do all he can to stay one step ahead of being lunch for these flesh eating alien convicts on the run. If you are a true fan of Leo and you have never seen Critters 3, well grab some popcorn and prepare to have some cheesy fun as you simply must watch it to see where this Hollywood icon’s career started! 

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