Thomas Butt is a senior writer at Collider who focuses on classic movies.
How has it taken this long for Leonardo DiCaprio and Paul Thomas Anderson to work together? The demand for a collaboration between these two legends of their respective craft has been stewing for over 25 years, since Anderson's breakthrough film, Boogie Nights, a film that nearly starred DiCaprio in the lead role of Dirk Diggler, played by Mark Wahlberg in his coming-out party as a rapper-turned-screen actor.
One Battle After Another, Anderson's new noisy and epic action extravaganza starring DiCaprio, releasing this September, is a long-awaited but inevitable team-up. Despite all his success, the Oscar-winning actor still harbors some regrets about career decisions, including one in the year of the release of Titanic, which put DiCaprio on the map as a global mega-star. Although he regrets turning down Boogie Nights, everything went according to plan, as it just wasn't his time yet to play a crass, bumbling, and arrogant airhead, an archetype he perfected with age. Leonardo DiCaprio Missed Out on Starring in Paul Thomas Anderson's 'Boogie Nights' In the lead-up to One Battle After Another, P.T. Anderson interviewed his leading man for Esquire, where they discussed shooting the film, adapting Thomas Pynchon's Vineland, Midnight Run, The Aviator, and everything in between, including regrets, something someone as accomplished as DiCaprio should be bereft of."My biggest regret is not doing Boogie Nights," the actor told his director, calling Anderson's second feature a"profound movie of my generation." While he does praise Wahlberg's indelible performance, which is inseparable from the film's greatness, it still stings that he missed out on such a golden opportunity."When I finally got to see that movie, I just thought it was a masterpiece," DiCaprio said. DiCaprio, regretting not being in Boogie Nights, the same year he made Titanic and immediately vaulted to the top of the movie star totem pole, tells you everything you need to know about him and his sensibilities. Following James Cameron's cultural sensation and Best Picture winner, DiCaprio quickly pivoted away from matinée idol status and worked with the best directors to upend his image as a teen heartthrob. It's a trend among many of the most traditional handsome male stars, who are perhaps insecure about being labeled"pretty boys," to strip down their glossy appearance and inhabit roles designed for character actors . Leonardo DiCaprio Was Better Off Turning Down 'Boogie Nights' Between playing the emotionally battered and volatile undercover cop in The Departed and the nefarious slave owner in Django Unchained, DiCaprio valiantly tested his popularity as a star with these displeasing and sometimes morally bankrupt characters. His last two notable roles, Rick Dalton in Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood and Ernest Burkhart in Killers of the Flower Moon, saw him playing aimless, oblivious, and thick-headed characters whose egos and insecurities get the better of them. This is also an apt description of Dirk Diggler, the rags-to-riches story at the center of Boogie Nights, an ordinary young man who relishes the wealth and luxury of being the top brass in the pornographic film industry, only to have everything crumble, personally and professionally, after substance abuse and his own hubris. It's a part that the relative screen newcomer, Mark Wahlberg, equipped with baggage as a young pop star, was born to play. To this day, Wahlberg is not necessarily renowned for his pristine dramatic chops, but he's always had presence, and when he's cast right, he is electric. The crass bravado and rawness of Dirk Diggler required a performer who didn't register as a trained actor, per se. When Dirk flaunts his wealth and flips out on set, you can see the juvenile energy pouring out of him. With his background as a Boston-based rapper, Wahlberg perfectly captured the hypermasculinity and impulsive disposition of an overnight star. Jack Dawson-era Leonardo DiCaprio simply did not possess the energy and off-kilter aggression required of Dirk. Perhaps it's because he was too"pretty" and breezy in his personality, but DiCaprio awkwardly introducing himself to his porn colleagues by the pool and being swallowed up by his ego wouldn't have the same potency. Shortly thereafter, DiCaprio gracefully aged into playing more grizzled parts, and, eventually, parts like Rick Dalton and Ernest Burkhard, who were impulsive meatheads who were bumbling and spoke with a dumbfounded register. In both films, by Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese, respectively, DiCaprio wears his age brilliantly, expressing a sense of perpetual weariness and angst. In many ways, Hollywood's Rick Dalton is like an older Dirk Diggler without the wunderkind start to his career. In the end, everything worked out. Mark Wahlberg announced himself as a legitimate actor, and Leonardo DiCaprio became the biggest movie star in the world. With One Battle After Another, the actor can finally realize his dreams of working with Paul Thomas Anderson, and audiences are just as ecstatic to see this collaboration manifest. Your Rating close 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Rate Now 0/10 Your comment has not been saved Like Follow Followed Boogie Nights R Drama Documentary 10.0/10 Release Date October 7, 1997 Runtime 155 minutes Director Paul Thomas Anderson Writers Paul Thomas Anderson Cast See All
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