Leonardo DiCaprio reveals turning down Boogie Nights is his biggest regret and calls it a "masterpiece"

The Oscar-winning icon known for his fearless performances in projects like The Revenant and The Wolf of Wall Street, Leonardo DiCaprio rarely shows vulnerability. However, during a candid interview with Esquire magazine DiCaprio revealed a persistent source of regret of turning down the lead role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights. He confessed:

"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. 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, but it’s true."

While DiCaprio reflects on what might have been as he puts the finishing touches on the 2025 film One Battle After Another, he recalls turning down Boogie Nights as a missed opportunity in what has been an otherwise extraordinary career.

Boogie Nights: A cinematic excellence from 1997

Initially released in 1997, Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights was an explicit, but painfully honest, cinematic look at the adult film industry in the San Fernando Valley at the height of its popularity in the 1970s and early 1980s. Not only an insight into the adult film industry, Boogie Nights grapples with themes of disenchantment, addiction, narcissism, and the hopeless suffering of loving one who cannot return one's love. 

It follows Eddie Adams (Mark Wahlberg), a naïve young man who reluctantly becomes a porn actor, and ultimately has a tortured fall from being the "star" Dirk Diggler to the nadir of his addiction-induced nothingness. 

Along the way, other characters permeate the film: Julianne Moore plays the adult actress Amber Waves, Burt Reynolds plays the fictional adult director Jack Horner, Don Cheadle plays a stereo salesman with aspirations of being an adult film actor and Buck Swope, Philip Seymour Hoffman plays the love-sick Scotty. The end product, a blatantly constructed film with pulsating rhythms and frenetic appeal, shocked audiences while generating three Academy Award nominations;  it made $43,000,000 on a primary (originating) $15,000,000 budget, and became a monumental cultural touchstone within the industry.

Why Leonardo DiCaprio calls Boogie Nights a "masterpiece"

At 22 years old in 1997, DiCaprio had a light but critical moment in his life and career. He was offered the role of Dirk Diggler in Boogie Nights, a no-holds-barred account of the 1970s adult film industry. He had committed to James Cameron's opus, Titanic, before being aware that the producers of Boogie Nights were coming for him."I was already committed to Titanic," DiCaprio realized, his tone heavy with the weight of hindsight. 

Titanic made him one of the most recognized faces worldwide, grossing over $2 billion globally, while the character of Dirk Diggler - the naïve adolescent who grows up to become a porn star - was a raw challenge that DiCaprio wanted to capitalize on that matched his original characterizations in films like What's Eating Gilbert Grape.

DiCaprio praised Boogie Nights for its willingness to explore the taboo, merging dark comedy and dark tragedy to depict the fragility of its characters. Its empathic depiction of characters pursuing success and failing is attractive to DiCaprio, as well as its visual boldness in has long takes, saturated colours and long lenses.

For DiCaprio, Boogie Nights is not just a film, but a revolutionary tale about humanity's quest for desire, and he is left to contemplate the ramifications of his decision not to work on a film as groundbreaking.

Regret that cuts deep for DiCaprio

Leo’s regret isn't about passing on a film; it's missing out on an artistic opportunity. He had embraced taking risks and had accepted playing edgier/interesting characters in The Basketball Diaries and Romeo + Juliet, and he viewed Boogie Nights as a great vehicle for him to feed that appetite to portray flawed but ambitious men. Watching Mark Wahlberg confidently roll as Dirk Diggler only added to his regret.

"I can't imagine anybody else but Mark in it,"

DiCaprio humbly said, but the opportunity for him to be able to showcase his depth will forever linger as a 'what if’.