John C. Reilly actually tried to convince Leonardo DiCaprio to back out of the Titanic.
The 61-year-old star appeared on the June 3 episode of the Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast with Ted Danson. The actor who's starred in movies like Chicago, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, and Step Brothers, opened up about when he was cast in Boogie Nights.
Before they went after Wahlberg, Andreson says he wanted DiCaprio for a role that he thought would be a better fit for him than Titanic. He knew the star since DiCaprio was a child and felt that the Titanic offer wouldn't do him justice. "Listen, Leo, that movie is about a boat that sinks, and everyone knows the boat sinks. No will give a sh*t about who's on the boat,"- he recalled stating.
The movie, set in LA, follows a nightclub dishwasher who soon becomes a porn star in the 1970s before crashing out in the 80s. Mark Wahlberg ultimately played that lead role as Dirk Diggler while Reilly played his pal Reed Rothchild.
Anderson and Reilly were already friends, and Reilly had appeared in Anderson's directorial debut called Hard Eight.