Leonardo DiCaprio in Baywatch? Hollywood’s strangest casting near-misses

From Steve Martin as Indiana Jones to De Niro as Jack Sparrow - a guide to Hollywood’s strangest casting near-misses. He achieved global fame slipping beneath the wintry waves in Titanic , but had things worked out differently, Leonardo DiCaprio might have created a very different kind of splash. A new documentary about 1990s buxom beachwear bacchanalia Baywatch has revealed the future heartthrob and Oscar winner was nearly cast as David Hasselhoff’s on-screen son, Hobie Buchannon.

DiCaprio , then 15, was one of two actors shortlisted for the part - but Hasselhoff vetoed to give the gig to the younger Jeremy Jackson. “I said, ‘No, no, no, take the kid’,” remembers Hasselhoff in Baywatch: Moment In The Sun . Leo somehow overcame the huge setback of not playing David Hasselhoff’s adolescent offspring and has done all right for himself.



Meanwhile, Jeremy Jackson was last seen on Celebrity Big Brother , where he was removed from the house after four days for opening fellow housemate Chloe Goodman’s dressing gown (earning a caution from Hertfordshire Police). But while the thought of baby-face DiCaprio running in slow motion alongside Hasselhoff and Pamela Anderson is weirdly appealing, he isn’t the only A-lister who very nearly ended up in the wrong movie or show. Here is a countdown of Hollywood’s most bonkers casting near-misses .

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