Mark Wahlberg reflects on the creation Boogie Nightsand recalls his initial hesitation to take part in the film. Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, Boogie Nights was released in 1997. The story follows Dirk Diggler, a porn star played by Wahlberg, who works with an ambitious producer in the 1970s. The film was a huge success with critics and was nominated for three Oscars, including Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Screenplay. Although it did not win one, Boogie Nights remains a groundbreaking work in the careers of both Wahlberg and Anderson.

In a recent video for diversity in which he tries to identify various lines from his most famous films, Wahlberg looks back on Boogie Nights and where he was in his career when the film came out.

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

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

“Show Girls had just come out. The movie wasn’t successful. I’d never met (Paul Thomas Anderson). I hadn’t seen Hard Eight, but everyone told me how great he was, so I read 25 or 30 pages, put it down and waited until I met him. When I met him, it was like, ‘Okay, I get it.’ And then I finished the script and got the part. We were both 25 at the time. It was wild.

“This film is not being shot today. Not in a studio.”

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“Boogie Nights” documents life in the porn industry in the 1970s and 1980s. But did any of the characters manage to escape the vicious cycle of drugs and violence?

Would there still be Boogie Nights today?

Why Mark Wahlberg is right about his collaboration with Paul Thomas Anderson

Boogie Nights was a critical and box office success. The film was made on an estimated budget of $15 million and grossed $43.1 million worldwide. In the years that followed, it is likely to have grossed several million more due to digital and physical media sales. The cinema landscape today, however, looks very different than it did in 1997.

Even then Boogie Nights was a risk. Although he Hard Eight in 1996, Anderson was relatively untested as a filmmaker, and Wahlberg was not a box-office star either.. Taking inflation into account, Boogie NightsThe budget for The 4000 would be just under $30 million today. While that number pales in comparison to many major blockbusters, it’s still quite an investment for a two-hour, 35-minute adult drama about a porn star without a leading man in the lead role.

So Wahlberg is right, Boogie Nights would probably no longer be produced in a studio today because it just doesn’t make sense as a play. However, the rise of streaming has allowed these types of films to continue to be produced. Although even streamers have started to move somewhat away from risky, auteur-driven films, it seems as though a platform like Apple TV+ or Netflix is ​​the place where Boogie Nights would end if it were done today.

Source: diversity

Boogie Nights

5.0

Boogie Nights is a comedy/drama about a young high school dropout named Eddie Adams in the ’70s who stumbles into the porn industry after a chance encounter with a filmmaker. The film traces his career and life, and highlights the problematic stigmas and issues the industry faced in the ’80s.

Release date

October 7, 1997

Studio(s)

New Line Cinema

Sales Partner

New Line Cinema

Duration

155 minutes

budget

15 million US dollars

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