Leonardo DiCaprio has revealed that the biggest regret of his career was turning down Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights.
The Oscar winner was offered the lead role in the 1997 drama, set in the 1970s porn industry. However, the actor was committed to James Cameron’s Titanic, and had to pass on the opportunity, which eventually went to Mark Wahlberg.
Boogie Nights would go on to be considered a modern classic, launching the careers of filmmaker Anderson and establishing Wahlberg as a dramatic actor after finding fame earlier in the decade as rapper Marky Mark.
Although DiCaprio would enjoy worldwide success with Titanic, he still views Boogie Nights as the one that got away.
In an interview with Anderson for Esquire, the actor looked back on that period. “I’ll say it even though you’re here: My biggest regret is not doing Boogie Nights. It was a profound movie of my generation,” he said.
“I can’t imagine anyone but Mark in it. When I finally got to see that movie, I just thought it was a masterpiece. It’s ironic that you’re the person asking that question, but it’s true.”
The pair are finally working together, 28 years after that movie, on the upcoming action thriller One Battle After Another. DiCaprio plays a former member of a revolutionary group who calls on his old comrades after his daughter goes missing.
“Ultimately, wanting to do this movie was pretty simple: I’ve been wanting to work with you — Paul — for something like twenty years now,” he said of the project, “and I loved this idea of the washed-up revolutionary trying to erase his past and disappear and try and live some sort of normal life raising his daughter.”