Stephen Graham almost broke Leonardo DiCaprio's leg with a golf cart.

The 51-year-old actor starred alongside the 'Titanic' star in 2002's 'Gangs of New York' and while he was excited to get behind the wheel of the vehicle, which his co-star had been using to get around the vast set at Cinecitta Studios in Rome, Italy, he quickly ran into difficulties when it zoomed down a "big hill".

He explained on 'The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon': "Leo used to drive a golf cart - you know, the way they drive golf carts on big sets and stuff. So I asked him for a go; I was like, 'Can I have a go on the golf cart?'

"And he was like, 'Uh ... yeah, OK.'

"And golf carts aren't that fast, are they? But going downhill, they are."

The pair and their co-star Alec McCowen, who was sitting in the back seat, came close to injury when the rear wheels locked when Stephen put the cart into reverse as it was travelling at speed.

"I floored it ... we were like 'The Flintstones'; basically.

"All of a sudden - you know how when you knock a golf cart into reverse and it takes its time? Well, if you knock it into reverse when you're going quite fast, the back wheels lock.

"So as the back wheels lock, I've turned it, and as I've turned it, the whole thing's just started to fall.

"But a golf cart falling is kind of slow motion in itself, so it's falling really slowly.

"He's looking at me and he's going, 'What the f***?'

"And the next minute, as it's falling, it looks like it's gonna break his leg.

"[He] just managed to get out of the way."

The ordeal caused Stephen to be branded "an animal", as well as earn a nickname that has stuck with him ever since.

The 'Adolescence' actor added: "Then Alec, who's a lovely lad ... he [tells me], 'You're an animal!' "

"And so my nickname became Ani."