Mark Wahlberg Reflects On His Oscar-Nominated Movie 27 Years Later

Mark Wahlberg reflects on making Boogie Nights, recalling his initial hesitation to join the film. Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, Boogie Nights was released in 1997, with a story that follows Wahlberg’s Dirk Diggler, a porn star, as he partners with an ambitious producer in the 1970s. The film was a big hit with critics and was nominated for three Oscars, including Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay. Though it won none, Boogie Nights remains a seminal work in the careers of both Wahlberg and Anderson.

In a recent video for Variety in which he attempts to identify various lines from his most iconic movies, Wahlberg looks back on Boogie Nights and where he was at in his career when the film came around.

Wahlberg recalls initially being hesitant about accepting the role of Dirk because he was trying to distance himself from his Calvin Klein modeling career, and he also claims that Boogie Nights would probably not be a film that gets made in 2024, at least not by a traditional movie studio. Check out his comments below:

“I was terrified because it was like, the pitch was tough. It’s like Ted, a guy and a teddy bear smoking weed. That doesn’t sound very appealing, right? Or a porn star. I was like, ‘Ah, I don’t want to do that.’ I had just come from Calvin Klein and all that stuf. I was trying to get away from all that.

“Show Girls had just come out. That movie was not successful. I had never met [Paul Thomas Anderson]. I didn’t see Hard Eight, but everybody was telling me how amazing it was, so I read 25 or 30 pages of it, put it down, waited till I met with him. As soon as I met with him, it was like, ‘Okay, I get it.’ And then I finished the script, I was cast in the part. We were both 25 at the time. It was wild.

“That movie ain’t getting made today. Not at a studio.”

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Boogie Nights documents life in the porn industry in the 1970s and 1980s, but did any character manage to escape the cycle of drugs and violence?

Would Boogie Nights Get Made Today?

Why Mark Wahlberg Is Right About His Paul Thomas Anderson Collaboration

Boogie Nights was a critical and commercial success. Made on an estimated budget of $15 million, the film ended up grossing $43.1 million worldwide, and it’s likely made several million more in the years since due to digital and physical media sales. The theatrical landscape, however, is very different today than it was in 1997.

Even at the time, Boogie Nights was a risk. Though he had made Hard Eight in 1996, Anderson was relatively untested as a filmmaker, and Wahlberg, too, wasn’t a bankable movie star. Accounting for inflation, Boogie Nights‘ budget would be just under $30 million today. While this number pales in comparison to many major blockbusters, it’s still quite an investment for a two-hour and 35-minute adult drama about a porn star without a major actor in the lead role.

Wahlberg, then, is right that Boogie Nights probably wouldn’t get made at a studio today because it just doesn’t make sense as a theatrical play. The rise of streaming, however, has allowed for these types of movies to still get made. Though even streamers have started to shift away somewhat from risky, auteur-driven movies, it seems like a platform like Apple TV+ or Netflix is where Boogie Nights would end up if it were made today.

Source: Variety

Boogie Nights

5.0

Boogie Nights is a comedy/drama that follows a young high-school dropout named Eddie Adams in the ’70s who stumbles into the porn industry after a fortuitous meeting with a filmmaker. The film chronicles his career and life, illuminating the problematic stigmas and troubles facing the sector heading into the 1980s.

Release Date

October 7, 1997

Studio(s)

New Line Cinema

Distributor(s)

New Line Cinema

Runtime

155 minutes

Budget

$15 million

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