Leonardo DiCaprio Regrets Not Starring In Boogie Nights

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Oscar-winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio appears to have it all — including some regrets.
The Once Upon A Time In Hollywood star has spent the past three decades curating one of the most impressive filmographies of his generation, working with historic directors such as Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and Quentin Tarantino.
However, he's still kicking himself over one major misstep, an admission he made during a recent Esquire interview with Paul Thomas Anderson, whose 1997 film Boogie Nights took Hollywood by storm. At the time, Anderson was a 27-year-old wunderkind.
'I'll say it even though you're here: My biggest regret is not doing Boogie Nights,' the actor confirmed. 'It was a profound movie of my generation. I can't imagine anyone but Mark [Wahlberg] 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,' he told Anderson, 'but it's true.'
The duo is promoting their first collaboration, One Battle After Another, an action-thriller comedy inspired by Thomas Pynchon's Vineland. It follows a former revolutionary, now past his prime, embarking on a wild quest to find his missing daughter.
'Why did it take us so long?' Anderson asked DiCaprio about finally working together.
Anderson certainly wanted DiCaprio for Boogie Nights, which painted a bleak portrait of the porn industry's rise in California, but was famously turned down — as DiCaprio already had a prior commitment at the time to star in a film called Titanic.
He reportedly urged Anderson to cast Wahlberg, his The Basketball Diaries (1995) co-star.
Anderson did just that, practically transforming the former model and rapper into a respected actor. The role of Dirk Diggler indeed demanded a lot of the lead actor, including scenes of emotional desperation, drug-fueled paranoia and a whole lot of nudity.
This isn't the first time DiCaprio has rued missing out on Boogie Nights. He first revealed turning it down during a 2008 GQ interview with Titanic director James Cameron, who cheekily asked DiCaprio if he would make a different choice 'if you could go back.'
'I'm not saying I would have,' DiCaprio replied at the time. 'But it would have been a different direction, career-wise. I think they're both great and wish I could have done them both.'