Boogie Nights gave Burt Reynolds his only Oscar nomination and turned Paul Thomas Anderson and Mark Wahlberg into household names. The twist: Reynolds pretty much hated making it, clashed with a then-very-young PTA, and later shut down a lead role in Magnolia without blinking. Here is how that happened, and why.
Boogie Nights: a hit that did not feel like one to Reynolds
On paper, the 1997 film was a career revival for Reynolds and a launchpad for Anderson and Wahlberg. Critics loved it, audiences showed up, and awards talk followed. Reynolds, though, walked away with very few warm memories.
- IMDb: 7.9
- Rotten Tomatoes: 91% Tomatometer / 89% Audience Score
- Domestic box office: $43.1 million
Why the set got tense
Reynolds was a veteran; Anderson was a newcomer directing his breakout. That dynamic did not help. Producer John Lyons has said Reynolds felt he was not getting the respect he was used to. Reynolds himself later described Anderson as young and overly pleased with himself, and he bristled at how painstakingly precise Anderson was about every frame.
Reynolds told one story about the very first shot he filmed, driving to Grauman's Chinese Theatre. Anderson called it amazing. Reynolds, not impressed, rattled off several earlier films that had done a similar shot. You can imagine how that landed with a 26-year-old director in his big swing movie.
It was not just eye rolls, either. Actor Tom Lenk has said things escalated into a physical outburst from Reynolds that left Anderson rattled. Lyons backed up that the moment genuinely shook the young filmmaker:
Paul bit off a little more than he could chew. Burt scared the sh*t out of him that day. I do not think Paul was smirking. I think he was literally shaken by it.
The subject matter was a nonstarter for him
Reynolds played Jack Horner, a porn director who mentors Wahlberg's Dirk Diggler. Reynolds was blunt about his feelings on the adult industry: he saw it as a dead-end path for performers and wanted nothing to do with it. He said he never even watched Boogie Nights after making it, which tracks with how uncomfortable the material made him.
Then Magnolia came calling... and he said no
Despite the accolades, Reynolds and PTA were not going to be a round two. When Anderson offered Reynolds a lead role in Magnolia (yes, the Tom Cruise-starring epic), Reynolds turned it down immediately. His explanation could not have been clearer:
I had done my picture with Paul Thomas Anderson, that was enough for me.
The aftermath
The two never worked together again. Reynolds kept his distance; Anderson kept climbing and is now firmly in the conversation for best working directors. However you feel about the feud, it definitely changed what Magnolia could have been.
Boogie Nights is streaming on Paramount+ in the US. Thoughts on the Reynolds/PTA clash? Hit the comments.