Leonardo DiCaprio Reveals His Biggest Career Regret: Turning Down a “Profound Movie” of His Generation

Leonardo DiCaprio has had one of the most impressive careers in Hollywood, starring in some of the biggest films ever made. But even with all of his success, DiCaprio admits that there’s one role he regrets turning down.

In a conversation with Esquire, the actor revealed that he was originally offered the lead role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1997 film Boogie Nights. The part, which eventually went to Mark Wahlberg, was for Eddie Adams, a young nightclub worker who rises to fame in the adult film industry under the name Dirk Diggler.

DiCaprio explained that he couldn’t take the role because he had already committed to playing Jack Dawson in Titanic. Looking back, he knows he made the right choice, but that didn’t stop him from wishing he had been able to do both. He admitted to Anderson directly: “I’ll say it even though you’re here: My biggest regret is not doing Boogie Nights.”

The actor added that he thought the film was something special when he finally saw it. “It was a profound movie of my generation. I can’t imagine anyone but Mark in it. When I finally got to see that movie, I just thought it was a masterpiece.”

Boogie Nights went on to receive huge critical praise when it was released. It earned three Academy Award nominations and is still considered one of Anderson’s best films. For many critics, it’s seen as one of the defining movies of the late 1990s.

Even though DiCaprio missed out on that chance, he is finally getting the opportunity to work with Anderson. The two have teamed up on a new movie called One Battle After Another, with DiCaprio playing Bob Ferguson, a man trying to escape his past while raising his daughter, as Sean Penn’s character hunts him down.

Talking about why he wanted to do the film, DiCaprio said: “But ultimately, wanting to do this movie was pretty simple: I’ve been wanting to work with you – Paul – for something like 20 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.”

It seems that while DiCaprio will always wonder what might have been if he had starred in Boogie Nights, he has finally found the chance to make up for it by working with the director he has admired for so long.

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