John C. Reilly really tried to convince Leonardo DiCaprio to drop out of “Titanic” to be in “Boogie Nights.”
While talking to Ted Danson on this week’s “Where Everybody Knows Your Name” podcast, Reilly explained that he wanted DiCaprio to join him in 1997’s “Boogie Nights.” He recalled telling the young actor that he “should not miss this opportunity” to work with director Paul Thomas Anderson.
“Before Mark was asked to do the movie, Paul really wanted Leo DiCaprio to do it,” Reilly said. “And I had already done ‘What’s Eating Gilbert Grape’ with Mary [Steenburgen] and Leo, and I knew Leo. I met him when he was 17. And I was like, ‘Give me the assignment, Paul. I’ll get this guy to do your movie. I have known him since he’s a kid.’”
He added: “I sat down with him on Hillhurst there in Silver Lake, and I was like, ‘Listen. Leo, let me tell you something. That movie, ‘Titanic,’ is about a boat that sinks. Everyone knows the boat sinks! No one’s gonna give a s–t about who’s on the boat.’”
Reilly also revealed during Danson’s podcast that while “Boogie Nights” became a cultural hit, there was a stink on it in the industry because it was a story about the porn industry. That had agents leery.
“At the time we were trying to get ‘Boogie Nights’ put together, being in porn was thought of as taboo,” Reilly said. “It’s hard to even imagine now, you probably remember. All these actors and their managers and their agents were like, ‘Porn? Whoa, whoa, man. No. No.’ And there’s a penis in the movie! Everyone, ‘no, no, no, no.’”
DiCaprio stayed on “Titanic” and it payed off. The film became one of the biggest films of all time and the James Cameron film sat atop the all-time box office list for years and years. That said, DiCaprio admitted that missing out on the role of Dirk Diggler – which eventually went to Mark Wahlberg – was one of the bigger regrets of his career.
“My biggest regret is not doing Boogie Nights,” DiCaprio said in an interview last August. “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.”
