John C. Reilly has revealed that he once went to great lengths to convince a young Leonardo DiCaprio not to do Titanic, and instead, in a movie about an adult star.
The actor shared the story on Ted Danson. Where everyone knows your name podcast, recalling how director Paul Thomas Anderson had desperately wanted DiCaprio to play the lead role in boogie nights before Mark Wahlberg was cast.
Reilly, who was a close friend of Anderson at the time, volunteered to make the proposal personally.
“Give me the assignment, Paul. I’ll ask this guy to make your movie. I’ve known him since he was a kid,” he told the director, after having met DiCaprio on the set of What is Gilbert Grape eating? in 1993, when Leo was only 17 years old.
The problem was that DiCaprio had already been offered Titanic.
Reilly’s argument for rejecting it was, in retrospect, some of the most spectacularly misjudged career advice in Hollywood history.
“Listen, Leo, let me tell you something. That movie Titanic “This is a sinking ship,” he told him.
“Everyone knows the ship is sinking. No one will give a shit who’s on the ship.”
DiCaprio was torn. His agents assured him Titanic It would be huge.
Reilly was equally insistent, urging him not to stop working with Anderson, whom he believed would become one of the great directors of his generation.
“I’m telling you, man. I’m telling you, I wouldn’t give you a bad handle here,” he said. “This is a sinking ship.”
DiCaprio went with Titanicwhich remains one of the highest-grossing films of all time and made him a global superstar at age 22.
Wahlberg took the boogie nights role with great success.
It took another 25 years until DiCaprio and Anderson finally worked together, in One battle after another.
“That was very satisfying for me,” Reilly joked. “I felt like, ‘Finally, he took my advice. It took him 25 years or something.'”
