“It was a profound movie of my generation,” the actor said

Leonardo DiCaprio in Las Vegas on April 1, 2025; Mark Wahlberg in Las Vegas on Dec. 13, 2023.Credit : Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty; Paul Citone/Variety via Getty

Leonardo DiCaprio “can’t imagine anyone but” Mark Wahlberg in Boogie Nights, but he still regrets not starring in the classic film.

Wahlberg, 54, famously played Eddie Adams/Dirk Diggler in the 1997 Paul Thomas Anderson film, but the part was originally offered to DiCaprio, 50, who turned it down as he had already signed on to star in James Cameron’s epic Titanic.

But in a new interview with Anderson for Esquire‘s Mavericks of Hollywood issue ahead of the release of their movie One Battle After Another, DiCaprio told the director, 55, “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,” he continued. “I can’t imagine anyone but Mark in it. When I finally got to see that movie, I just thought it was a masterpiece. It’s ironic that you’re the person asking that question, but it’s true.”

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Mark Wahlberg in Boogie Nights (1997).New Line/Kobal/Shutterstock

Boogie Nights takes place in the 1970s and follows Wahlberg’s Eddie, a teenage nightclub dishwasher, after he is discovered by filmmaker Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds) and becomes a wildly successful porn star named Dirk Diggler.

The movie also starred Julianne Moore, Heather Graham, Don Cheadle, John C. Reilly, William H. Macy and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

As for Wahlberg and DiCaprio, the two worked together both before and after Boogie Nights: in The Basketball Diaries (1995) and The Departed (2006).

Wahlberg opened up about the pair’s rocky start before filming The Basketball Diaries in a 2018 interview with Extra, admitting they “both had a specific opinion about each other” initially.

“Once I finally got to the point where I was able to audition and read with [DiCaprio], then we just both kinda looked at each other, we were like, ‘Wow!’ We were literally out that night and we became fast friends,” he added.

Leonardo DiCaprio on the cover of Esquire.Paul Thomas Anderson

DiCaprio and Anderson finally get to team up with One Battle After Another, which stars the Oscar winner as Bob Ferguson, a former revolutionary figure who is being hunted by Sean Penn’s police character, Steven Lockjaw.

Written and directed by Anderson, the action-thriller also stars Teyana Taylor, Wood Harris, Alana Haim, Regina Hall, Benicio del Toro and Chase Infiniti.

In his chat with Anderson for Esquire, DiCaprio addressed how One Battle After Another “has been on” the director’s “desk for a long time,” adding, “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 20 years now,” DiCaprio continued, “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 is in theaters Sept. 26.