Leonardo DiCaprio Says Passing on This Movie Is His Biggest Career Regret

Leonardo DiCaprio has been in some of the biggest movies of all time, but even he has one role he wishes he hadn’t passed on.

The actor, now 50, has built a legendary career with films like Titanic, Inception, The Wolf of Wall Street, Shutter Island, The Revenant, Romeo and Juliet, and Catch Me If You Can. But as he explained in an interview with Esquire, there is one movie he wishes he had taken part in.

DiCaprio revealed that he was first offered the role of Eddie Adams in Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1997 film Boogie Nights. The character is a young dishwasher who gets noticed by filmmaker Jack Horner, played by Burt Reynolds, and soon becomes a famous adult film star under the name Dirk Diggler. The part ended up going to Mark Wahlberg.

The reason DiCaprio turned it down was because he had already committed to Titanic. The decision worked out for him, of course, since Titanic became one of the biggest box office hits in history. But he still calls not taking Boogie Nights his biggest regret.

When speaking directly to Anderson, he said: “I’ll say it even though you’re here: My biggest regret is not doing Boogie Nights.”

DiCaprio explained that when he finally watched the film, he realized how important it was. “It was a profound movie of my generation. I can’t imagine anyone but Mark in it. When I finally got to see that movie, I just thought it was a masterpiece.”

Boogie Nights went on to be a critical success. It was nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actress for Julianne Moore, Best Supporting Actor for Burt Reynolds, and Best Original Screenplay for Anderson. The film is now often listed as one of the best of the 1990s.

Even though he missed out on working with Anderson back then, DiCaprio is finally teaming up with the director. They are making a new movie called One Battle After Another. DiCaprio plays Bob Ferguson, a man trying to escape his past and live a quiet life with his daughter, while being hunted by an investigator played by Sean Penn.

Talking about why he wanted to do it, DiCaprio told Esquire: “But ultimately, wanting to do this movie was pretty simple: I’ve been wanting to work with you – Paul – for something like 20 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.”

So while Boogie Nights will always be the one that got away, DiCaprio is finally getting his chance to work with the director he has admired for decades.

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