Leonardo DiCaprio’s “Biggest Regret” in His Career Is Passing on ‘Boogie Nights’

Leonardo DiCaprio has one regret from his sprawling career as an actor. 

In an interview with One Battle After Another director Paul Thomas Anderson for Esquire, the Oscar winner admitted that his “biggest regret” is turning down his 1997 film Boogie Nights. 

“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,” DiCaprio said. “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.”

DiCaprio had to pass on starring in the film that Anderson directed because he was already signed on to lead Titanic. The actor previously told GQ in 2008 that he wished “I could have done them both” instead of having to choose one project over another. 

Boogie Nights instead starred Mark Wahlberg as Eddie Adams, a young man who gets scouted by porn director Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds) and turns into pornographic film star Dirk Diggler. 

Although DiCaprio and Anderson nearly worked together on the 1997 film, One Battle After Another marks their first official collaboration. When asked by the director, “Why did it take us so long” to work on a film, he said he’d been wanting to join forces for nearly two decades.

“I know One Battle After Another has been on your desk for a long time. It was a personal story for you in a lot of ways and certainly pertinent to the world that we’re living in right now,” DiCaprio added. “But ultimately, wanting to do this movie was pretty simple: I’ve been wanting to work with you — Paul — for something like twenty 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.”

One Battle After Another follows a group of ex-revolutionaries who reunite to assist their member Bob Ferguson (DiCaprio) to find his daughter. The film is set to release on Sept. 26.