{"id":721381,"date":"2026-06-07T16:50:48","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T16:50:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/721381\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T16:50:48","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T16:50:48","slug":"john-c-reilly-tried-to-convince-leonardo-dicaprio-to-pass-on-titanic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/721381\/","title":{"rendered":"John C. Reilly Tried to Convince Leonardo DiCaprio to Pass on Titanic"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tJohn C. Reilly<\/a> recently told Ted Danson on the \u201cWhere Everybody Knows Your Name<\/a>\u201d podcast that he tried to convince Leonardo DiCaprio<\/a> to turn down \u201cTitanic\u201d and instead star in \u201cBoogie Nights,\u201d written and directed by his good friend Paul Thomas Anderson.<\/p>\n

\n\tReilly said he and Anderson were \u201cthick as thieves\u201d after collaborating on Anderson\u2019s 1996 directorial debut \u201cHard Eight.\u201d Reilly worked with DiCaprio in 1993\u2019s \u201cWhat\u2019s Eating Gilbert Grape,\u201d and he told Anderson he was confident he would get the young star to sign on for \u201cBoogie Nights.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI met him when he was 17,\u201d Reilly explained. \u201cAnd I was like, \u2018Give me the assignment, Paul. I\u2019ll get this guy to do your movie. I\u2019ve known him since [he was] a kid.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tReilly recalled telling DiCaprio, \u201c\u2019Listen, Leo, let me tell you something. That movie \u2018Titanic\u2019 is about a boat that sinks. Everyone knows the boat sinks. No one\u2019s going to give a shit about who\u2019s on the boat.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe also said of Anderson at the time, \u201c\u2018This guy, this director, is going to be one of the most talented film directors going forward, and you should not miss this opportunity.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tReilly remembered DiCaprio leaning toward doing James Cameron\u2019s \u201cTitanic,\u201d since his agents were convinced it was destined to be \u201ca really big movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tStill, Reilly pressed on: \u201cAnd I was like, \u2018I\u2019m telling you, man. I\u2019m telling you, I wouldn\u2019t give you a bum steer here. It\u2019s about a boat that sinks.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDespite Reilly\u2019s persistence, DiCaprio went on to star in \u201cTitanic,\u201d which grossed $1.84 billion by the end of its original run. Mark Wahlberg stepped into the role of Eddie Adams, aka Dirk Diggler, a young dishwasher who is catapulted into adult film stardom in the 1970s. Reilly starred in the film as fellow performer Reed Rothchild.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John C. Reilly recently told Ted Danson on the \u201cWhere Everybody Knows Your Name\u201d podcast that he tried…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":721382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,134,244958,18349],"class_list":["post-721381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-john-c-reilly","tag-leonardo-dicaprio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=721381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/721382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=721381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=721381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=721381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}