How Leonardo DiCaprio’s part in ‘Poison Ivy’ went from monologue to one word to nothing at all

Hindsight is 20/20 and we suspect the producers of the early ’90s erotic thriller Poison Ivy wish they could go back and make a quick change.

While the somewhat sleazy Drew Barrymore-led thriller was enough of a hit in its day to inspire three sequels, one wonders how much more beloved it would be if it stayed in its initial form, and included a monologue from future Oscar winner Leonardo DiCaprio.

As DiCaprio told Marc Maron during an appearance on the WTF podcast some time ago, “My first role in an actual movie was with Sara Gilbert and Drew Barrymore and it was called Poison Ivy. And I had a whole monologue insulting Sara Gilbert, and I messed up my lines.”

He continued, “I think I was 12 or 13 years old. Screwed up my lines and then they said, ‘OK, kid, just walk in and look at her and say, ‘Problems.’ I said, ‘Just problems?’ And I walked in and said, ‘Problems.'”

It got worse from there.

“That was my line, and then they cut that out of the movie,” he added. “So, I’m not in the movie at all. My first role, I’m actually not in it at all. They completely edited me out.”

If you look real close, though, you can see him for about a second in one shot, but, yeah, seems like a botched opportunity by the director to work with a young actor, let him build his confidence, and try again. (In a way, it sounds a bit like the famous sequence from DiCaprio’s 2019 movie Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.)

He’s still credited as “Guy” on IMDb, but what’s most interesting is that if you look, he’s just a year away from his breakout role in This Boy’s Life opposite Robert De Niro, and also his turn in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, which got him an Academy Award nomination. Clearly something soon clicked and the young actor stopped flubbing his lines.

Poison Ivy is today a bit of a camp classic, but it actually debuted at the reputable Sundance Film Festival during the peak of the indie film boom in 1992. It featured some tremendous hairstyles and costuming, people getting shoved off balconies, and Drew Barrymore (as Ivy!) affecting a “bad girl” persona, which is amusing considering the loving, open-hearted persona she maintains on her talk show today. In addition to Sara Gilbert, it costarred Cheryl Ladd and Tom Skerritt as the silver fox dad that ends up all itchy from Ivy. (Aleve won’t help you with that.)

Sequel films in the series grew even more lurid, and starred Alyssa Milano, Jaime Pressly, and Miriam McDonald.

If you have not seen the trailer for the OG Poison Ivy, grab some calamine lotion and take a look.