Leonardo DiCaprio Turned Down Boogie Nights for a $2 Billion Phenomenon
Faced with a career-defining choice, Leonardo DiCaprio skipped Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights to star in James Cameron’s Titanic — and after 11 Oscars and a $2 billion haul, he has zero regrets.
Leonardo DiCaprio almost headlined Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights. Instead, he got on a boat. Decades later, he says he made the right call, and he finally got to work with PTA anyway.
The choice: Boogie Nights or Titanic
Back in the mid-90s, DiCaprio had a legit fork-in-the-road moment: take a lead role in Anderson's Boogie Nights, or jump aboard James Cameron's Titanic. He picked Titanic, Mark Wahlberg took Boogie Nights, and the rest is movie history. He talked about that decision while chatting with Deadline, off the back of his new collaboration with Anderson, One Battle After Another.
No, he does not regret the iceberg
Titanic dropped in 1997, bulldozed the box office for years, and tied the all-time Oscar record with 11 wins. It pulled in about $2.2 billion worldwide and turned DiCaprio into the kind of star who can choose his projects instead of just chasing them. He knows exactly what that movie did for him.
"No regrets. I mean, fully now in retrospect, I look back at that film and realize the thanks and the appreciation that I have for being a part of it... to be the conductor of my own choices since."
How Boogie Nights fits into it now
DiCaprio says the Boogie Nights talk came up while he and Anderson were sitting around discussing movies, framed like a 'biggest regret' question. His answer wasn't so much about missing that one role as it was about missing the chance to work with Anderson back then. He also gives Wahlberg full credit for nailing the part — his take is basically that Wahlberg was the right guy and crushed it.
Finally teaming with PTA
Cut to now: DiCaprio is 51, and he's finally teamed up with Anderson on One Battle After Another — a movie a lot of critics are calling the year's best. He describes this long-overdue pairing as a satisfying full-circle moment. Would he have liked to do both Boogie Nights and Titanic back in the day? Of course. But the schedules didn't line up. And judging by the career that followed, it's hard to argue with how it played out.
Where to watch
One Battle After Another is available to rent or buy on digital platforms right now.