Leonardo DiCaprio Regretted Passing On Boogie Nights, Now He’s Finally Working With Its Director

In a recent profile, Leonardo DiCaprio expressed his regret at passing on a role in Boogie Nights back in the ‘90s, and now he finally has a chance to make things right.

- August 17, 2025 | 4:54 PM IST

From Regret to Redemption: Leonardo DiCaprio Joins Paul Thomas Anderson in New Film — Leonardo DiCaprio Finally Teams Up With Paul Thomas Anderson After Regretting Boogie Nights Miss ( Photo Credit – Instagram )

Leonardo DiCaprio has been a household name in Hollywood and throughout the world ever since bagging high-profile roles in iconic films such as 1997’s Titanic, 2012’s Django Unchained, 2015’s The Revenant, and 2019’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

However, when the actor was interviewed by Esquire magazine for a profile they ran on him and filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson. During the ensuing conversation, Leonardo opened up about paths he wished he had taken and roles he wished he hadn’t passed him. More specifically, he directly mentioned 1997’s Boogie Nights, which Paul Thomas Anderson had directed, saying:

“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. 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.”

Leonardo DiCaprio Wishes He’d Done Boogie Nights With Paul Thomas Anderson

As Leonardo DeCaprio was interviewed by Paul Thomas Anderson, he noted the irony of his regret about passing up a role in the director’s own film. Boogie Nights had released around the same time as Titanic, forcing Leonardo to pick and choose which role to go with.

The actor had already mused on his choice in an earlier 2008 interview with GQ magazine. At that time, he’d been asked whether he’d swap out his iconic role as Jack Dawson for Mark Wahlberg’s Eddie Adams. Leo had this to say:

“I would have been happy to do them both. 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.”

Leonardo And Paul Thomas Anderson Have A New Film in The Works

While Leonardo did regret not being able to work on Boogie Nights, he will be collaborating with Paul Thomas Anderson on a new film. This film is called One Battle After Another, and it will be released in theaters on September 26 of this year.

The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio in the leading role of Bob Ferguson, a former revolutionary who gets entangled in a life-or-death plot after an old enemy of his, Colonel Lockjaw, resurfaces and abducts his daughter.

Having been forced back into the game, Bob Ferguson must reconnect with his old comrades and do whatever he can to ensure his daughter’s safety, while reckoning with his past decisions that ended up ensuring that he ended up facing one battle after another.

In his Esquire interview, Leo made it clear that the role meant a lot to him, saying:

“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.”