John C. Reilly said he once tried to persuade Leonardo DiCaprio to pass on James Cameron’s Titanic and instead take the lead role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights. Speaking on Ted Danson’s Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast, Reilly recalled that he and Anderson were close after working together on Anderson’s 1996 debut, Hard Eight, and that he felt confident he could convince DiCaprio to join the project because he had already worked with him in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape.
Reilly said he told Anderson, “Give me the assignment,” believing he could get DiCaprio to sign on. He then remembered his pitch to the young actor, arguing that Titanic was simply “about a boat that sinks” and that audiences would not care who was on it. He also urged DiCaprio not to miss the chance to work with Anderson, whom he described as an exceptionally talented filmmaker with a major future ahead of him.
According to Reilly, DiCaprio was already leaning toward Titanic, in part because his agents believed it would become a major hit. Reilly nevertheless kept pushing, repeating that he would not mislead him and insisting that the film was just about a sinking ship. In the end, DiCaprio chose Titanic, which became one of the biggest films in history and earned $1.84 billion during its original theatrical run.
The role in Boogie Nights ultimately went to Mark Wahlberg, who played Eddie Adams, also known as Dirk Diggler, a young dishwasher who becomes an adult film star in the 1970s. Reilly appeared in the film as Reed Rothchild.
