Leonardo DiCaprio has opened up about the one movie he "regrets" turning down.
The 50-year-old actor is one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, with a career spanning over three decades and a string of iconic roles in films such as Titanic, The Revenant (which earned him his first Oscar), and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Despite his immense success, DiCaprio recently revealed that his "biggest" career regret is turning down a role in one of the most critically acclaimed films of the 1990s: Boogie Nights.
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, Boogie Nights has since become a cult classic, featuring an ensemble cast that included Julianne Moore, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and Burt Reynolds, who received an Oscar nomination for his role.
The film chronicled the rise of a porn star in the 1970s, with Mark Wahlberg portraying the lead role of Dirk Diggler.
In an interview for Esquire, DiCaprio admitted that he had been offered the role of Dirk after Anderson saw his performance in The Basketball Diaries (1995).
However, DiCaprio was already committed to starring in Titanic, a role that would launch him to international superstardom. He instead recommended his co-star Wahlberg for the role.
“My biggest regret is not doing Boogie Nights,” DiCaprio said. “It was a profound movie of my generation... When I finally got to see that movie, I just thought it was a masterpiece."
Now, 28 years after its release, DiCaprio and Anderson are finally collaborating on One Battle After Another, their first film together, set to release on September 26.
In the film, DiCaprio plays Bob Ferguson, a washed-up revolutionary who must come to terms with his past while trying to save his long-lost daughter.
Reflecting on the long-awaited collaboration, DiCaprio said, "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," per Variety.
In the same Esquire interview, DiCaprio reflected on his remarkable career and the films that have shaped it.
Though he rarely watches his own work, he revealed that The Aviator is one film he frequently revisits. “It was the first time as an actor I got to feel implicitly part of the production, rather than just an actor hired to play a role,” he said of his experience working with director Martin Scorsese on the biographical drama about Howard Hughes.
"I’ve always felt proud and connected to that film as such a key part of my growing up in this industry," he added.