It’s been almost 30 years since Paul Thomas Anderson released his disco-era porn fantasia Boogie Nights, and Leonardo DiCaprio still can’t get over not being part of it.
In a new interview for Esquire, the 50-year-old Oscar winner admits to the prolific director that he still regrets turning down the film set and shot in the Valley, where the adult-film industry took root.
When asked by Anderson — who interviewed DiCaprio for the outlet while promoting their upcoming film, One Battle After Another — if he has any regrets over his 35+ years in the entertainment industry, the actor doesn’t hold back his truth “even though you’re here.”
Burt Reynolds and Mark Wahlberg in ‘Boogie Nights’.
Everett Collection
“My biggest regret is not doing Boogie Nights. It was a profound movie of my generation,” DiCaprio responded. “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.”
He added, “It’s ironic that you’re the person asking that question, but it’s true.”
Wahlberg played porn star Dirk Diggler in Anderson’s 1997 film, which earned him a Screen Actors Guild nomination for best ensemble alongside Burt Reynolds and Julianne Moore. The actor’s role in Boogie Nights remains a formative part of Wahlberg’s acting career, as it essentially put him on the map in the industry when he transitioned into acting after his rap career.
It isn’t the first time DiCaprio has revealed this particular regret, but it’s the first time he’s told Anderson that to his face. In an interview back in 2008, he revealed that he turned down a role in Boogie Nights to lead Titanic. Of course, the James Cameron helmed film launched DiCaprio’s career into the stratosphere, so some would say he made the right choice.
At that time, DiCaprio couldn’t say he would have rather done Anderson’s film instead of Titanic, but he was adamant that he would have loved to have “done them both.”
“I’m not saying I would have. But it would have been a different direction, careerwise…I would have been happy to do them both,” he explained. “And the truth is, if I’d not done Titanic, I wouldn’t be able to do the types of movies or have the career I have now, for sure. But it would have been interesting to see if I had gone the other way.”
While DiCaprio missed his chance to work with Anderson back in the ’90s, he isn’t missing his shot now.
The Killers of the Flower Moon star leads a star-studded ensemble cast in the action thriller film as Bob Ferguson, a former revolutionary who is being hunted by Sean Penn’s police character, Steven Lockjaw, and must reunite with his ex-revolutionaries after his daughter, played by Chase Infiniti, is taken.
Leonardo DiCaprio in ‘One Battle After Another’.
Warner Bros.
“I know One Battle After Another has been on your desk for a long time,” DiCaprio told Anderson. “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. 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 also stars Teyana Taylor as Perfidia Beverly Hills, Bob’s former lover and the mother of his daughter, Benicio del Toro, Wood Harris, Alana Haim and Regina Hall. In the film’s trailer, Perfidia is apprehended by law enforcement prior to the start of the movie’s events, leaving Bob and Willa (Infiniti) to go on the run and seek refuge with an ally, Sensei Sergio (del Toro).
DiCaprio previously described One Battle After Another as “an incredibly epic movie [that] has such scope and scale” when he appeared at CinemaCon 2025 in April to tease the film.
He went on to praise Anderson as a “master” who is open to allowing his actors to improvise.
“A lot of writer-directors are incredibly rigid, but his ability to work with actors is so unique,” DiCpairo said, calling it an “honor” to work with the filmmaker.
One Battle After Another premieres in theaters Sept. 26.
