“Hocus Pocus” Director Recalls Meeting with Leonardo DiCaprio While Casting Halloween Classic

"We shared a sandwich together. He was super cool," Kenny Ortega said of meeting a teenaged Leonardo DiCaprio while casting actors for the 1993 film

In another world, Leonardo DiCaprio could have met the Sanderson sisters.

Hocus Pocus director Kenny Ortega recently told Entertainment Weekly that a young DiCaprio, now 48, read for the role of Max during casting for the 1993 Halloween-themed movie. Though, the film's casting department knew he could not take the part.

"[My casting team] called me up and said, 'We're sending someone in, but you can't have him,'" Ortega, 73, recalled. "They said, 'We want you to know who he is, we want you to meet him, he's agreed to come in to meet you, but he can't do the role. He's being offered a movie with [Robert] De Niro and What's Eating Gilbert Grape.' "

DiCaprio, who was 18 when Hocus Pocus released, did not read any lines during his meeting with Ortega, EW reported. While the role wound up going to Omri Katz, that one meeting with DiCaprio sold Ortega on the actor's potential just before he broke out with his Oscar-nominated supporting role as Arnie in What's Eating Gilbert Grape.

"He came in, and he was just amazing — so extraordinary and unique — he came and he was stressed," Ortega told the outlet. "He said, 'I feel bad that I'm here because I can't do this, because I'm really focused on these other things,' and I said, 'Understandably.' "

Related: See the 'Hocus Pocus' Cast Then and Now

Ortega continued, adding: "We shared a sandwich together. He was super cool. When he walked out, I called my casting agents and I said, 'You're murdering me, here.' "

Despite Ortega's early recognizance that DiCaprio was at the start of a successful acting career, the filmmaker maintained that Katz, 47, was perfect to lead Hocus Pocus opposite Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy's trio of witches.

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"It was so clear to me that [DiCaprio] was so special, but I have to say, when Omri came in, there was something there that was just so perfect and that I feel, to this day, he delivered all that I could've hoped for in that role," Ortega told EW. "He was adorable."

Related: Never-Before-Seen Titanic Set Photos Show a Young Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet

Hocus Pocus received a long-awaited sequel directed by Anne Fletcher (The Proposal). Katz did not return for the 2022 movie, though Middler, 77, Parker, 58 and Najimy, 66, did reprise their roles. Disney confirmed that a third movie in the film series is in development back in June, though the company did not share any casting details.

DiCaprio, meanwhile, has reunited with De Niro, 80, for Martin Scorsese's new true-crime movie, Killers of the Flower Moon, which debuts in theaters Friday, Oct. 20.

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