{"id":66942,"date":"2025-08-13T16:57:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T16:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/66942\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T16:57:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T16:57:08","slug":"leonardo-dicaprio-regrets-turning-down-boogie-nights-offer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/66942\/","title":{"rendered":"Leonardo DiCaprio Regrets Turning Down Boogie Nights Offer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tLeonardo DiCaprio<\/a> got interviewed by his \u201cOne Battle After Another<\/a>\u201d director Paul Thomas Anderson<\/a> for the actor\u2019s latest Esquire magazine cover story<\/a> and revealed that his biggest career regret is turning down Anderson\u2019s \u201cBoogie Nights<\/a>\u201d offer nearly 30 years ago. DiCaprio was Anderson\u2019s original pick to play Eddie Adams, the high-school drop out who becomes one of the porn industry\u2019s most popular stars under the name Dirk Diggler. But DiCaprio was already committed to \u201cTitanic,\u201d a role that would turn him into a global movie star. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019ll say it even though you\u2019re here: My biggest regret is not doing \u2018Boogie Nights,’\u201d DiCaprio admitted. \u201cIt was a profound movie of my generation. I can\u2019t imagine anyone but Mark [Wahlberg] in it. When I finally got to see that movie, I just thought it was a masterpiece. It\u2019s ironic that you\u2019re the person asking that question [about regrets], but it\u2019s true.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs the story goes, Anderson wanted DiCaprio in \u201cBoogie Nights\u201d after watching the young actor in 1995\u2019s \u201cThe Basketball Diaries.\u201d When he turned down the role, DiCaprio told Anderson to consider casting his \u201cBasketball Diaries\u201d co-star Mark Wahlberg instead. The rest is history. <\/p>\n

\n\tNow, here DiCaprio and Anderson are 30 years later with \u201cOne Battle After Another,\u201d their first film collaboration that opens in theaters this September. DiCaprio plays Bob Ferguson, a washed-up revolutionary fighting to save his teenage daughter, Willa (Chase Infiniti).<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhy did it take us so long?\u201d Anderson asked DiCaprio about them working together.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI know\u00a0\u2018One Battle After Another\u2019\u00a0has been on your desk for a long time,\u201d DiCaprio responded. \u201cIt was a personal story for you in a lot of ways and certainly pertinent to the world that we\u2019re living in right now. But ultimately, wanting to do this movie was pretty simple: I\u2019ve been wanting to work with you\u2014Paul\u2014for something like twenty years now, 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnderson also asked DiCaprio if he ever watches any of his old movies. The Oscar-winning actor admitted that \u201cI rarely watch any of my films, but if I\u2019m being honest, there\u2019s one that I have watched more than others. It\u2019s\u00a0\u2018The Aviator.\u2019 That\u2019s simply because it was such a special moment to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Aviator\u201d marked the second collaboration between DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese. DiCaprio played business tycoon Howard Hughes in the biographical drama and earned an Oscar nomination for best actor.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI had worked with Marty [Scorsese] on\u00a0\u2018Gangs of New York,\u2019 and I\u2019d been toting around a book on Howard Hughes for ten years,\u201d DiCaprio explained. \u201cI almost did it with Michael Mann, but there was a conflict and I ended up bringing it to Marty. I was thirty. It was the first time as an actor I got to feel implicitly part of the produc\u00adtion, rather than just an actor hired to play a role. I felt responsible in a whole new way. I\u2019ve always felt proud and connected to that film as such a key part of my growing up in this industry and taking on a role of a real collaborator for the first time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOne Battle After Another\u201d opens in theaters Sept. 26 from Warner Bros. Head over to Esquire\u2019s website <\/a>to read DiCaprio and Anderson\u2019s full conversation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leonardo DiCaprio got interviewed by his \u201cOne Battle After Another\u201d director Paul Thomas Anderson for the actor\u2019s latest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66943,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[42496,49,48,75,15462,15463,15461],"class_list":{"0":"post-66942","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-boogie-nights","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-leonardo-dicaprio","13":"tag-one-battle-after-another","14":"tag-paul-thomas-anderson"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}