Trivia / Boogie Nights

• Acting in the Dark: According to William H. Macy, the scene where Dirk Diggler wins the Golden Phallus Award was filmed with about one hundred extras, who had shown up in their own 1970s clothes. They weren't told what kind of movie they were in, only that it was a film featuring Burt Reynolds. The crowd was told to applaud after Melora Walters had announced Diggler as the winner. However, after Walters added some explicit sexual profanity to her line, there was a stunned silence. Subsequently, about half of the extras got up and left the set, not to return again. This caused some delay in filming, in order to reassemble another crowd of extras, so when they finally resumed filming, Paul Thomas Anderson took great care to explain to the new crowd what they were in for.
• All-Star Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Burt Reynolds, Julianne Moore, Heather Graham, Don Cheadle, John C. Reilly, William H. Macy, and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
• Banned in China: The movie was banned in South Korea until 1999.
• Breakthrough Hit: For Paul Thomas Anderson
• Career Resurrection: For Burt Reynolds, though he did not capitalize on it due to not getting along with Paul Thomas Anderson and not liking the film. Since it had been about twenty years since his last hit film and he'd been forced to declare bankruptcy due to a very messy divorce and some bad investments, he squandered a golden opportunity.
• The Cast Showoff: Melora Walters, who plays Jessie, is also a painter in real life.
• Cast the Expert:
  • Several Real Life porn performers had cameos. Nina Hartley appeared in several scenes as Little Bill's faithless wife. Veronica Hart is the judge at Amber Waves' custody hearing. More recent porn star Lil' Cinderella (credited as Amber Hunter) plays the Colonel's 'lady friend' who OD's at Jack's party, and Lexi Leigh plays one of Floyd's amateur porn stars. Summer Cummings and Skye Blue share a Jacuzzi.
  • In a non-porn related example, Reed Rothchild shows off his magic skills to Kurt, who seems less than impressed. Kurt is played by Ricky Jay, a professional magician.
• Cast the Runner-Up: Laurel Holloman screentested for the role of Roller Girl before being cast as Sheryl Lynn.
• Completely Different Title: in Latin America the film is named Juegos de Placer (lit. Pleasure Games or Games of Pleasure).
• Creator Backlash:
  • Believe it or not, Burt Reynolds viewed the film as this. After seeing a rough cut of the film, Reynolds fired his agent for recommending it and refused to ever work with Paul Thomas Anderson again.
  • Averted for Mark Wahlberg; he doesn't regret making the film (it was a breakthrough for him as an actor), but he admits that he would never accept a role like this again. One reason is his Catholic guilt, and the other is because he's now a father of two children.
• The Danza: William H. Macy as Little Bill.
• Deleted Scene: Some smaller sub-plots not included in the DVD were filmed for the movie, but didn't make it to the final version, or DVD deleted scenes. They are:
  • A small sub-plot in which Maurice bugs Rollergirl throughout the film for nude pictures of her. He sends the pictures back to his brothers in Puerto Rico. This ties in with the deleted scene between him and Rollergirl.
  • A scene in which Rahad runs back to the house after chasing Dirk and Reed with the gun. Cosmo has been shot, and is dead. Helicopters circle, and he is actually happy he gets to use his firepower. He exchanges shots with cops, and ultimately dies in the confrontation.
  • Becky Barnett's husband abuses her shortly after they are married, and she calls Dirk over to help her. He wrecks his car in the way, which explains the damage to his car seen in the movie. This subplot was removed after the director felt that seeing all of the characters have horrible lives would have been too depressing.
• Hey, It's That Sound!: Dirk Diggler, getting his singing career going, sings "The Touch". Yes, THAT "The Touch". It's even funnier now, as his actor, Mark Wahlberg, would go on to star in two of the franchise's live-action installments.
• Hostility on the Set: Burt Reynolds didn't make many friends onset. At one point, he threw a punch at Paul Thomas Anderson, because he felt that the director was disrespecting him. The film's First Assistant Director, John Wildermuth, tells this story: "Burt got so frustrated he pulled Paul outside into the backyard and started yelling at him, like a father, you know? 'You f—kin' little punk kid, don't tell me what to do.'" Tom Lenk added, "All of a sudden we saw fists flying. We saw some fists flying from Burt Reynolds. I hope I don't get in trouble for saying this, but it was like he was trying to punch our director in the face." Reynolds was also involved in a heated scuffle with Thomas Jane. In the DVD Commentary, Anderson and Mark Wahlberg imply that Reynolds was on drugs during filming.
• Irony as She Is Cast: Adult film star Veronica Hart as the judge in Amber's custody case. Also, rocker John Doe (of Los Angeles punk legends X) as Amber's straight-laced ex-husband, Tom.
• Orphaned Reference: In a deleted scene, Dirk Diggler crashes his Corvette into a telephone booth. The scene was deleted because of time, but the car still remains wrecked when Dirk visits Rahad Jackson's house, drives away, and drives back to Jack's house. When Dirk and Reed are conspiring to rob Rahad's house, Dirk says, "That'll be enough to get the 'Vette fixed."
• Reality Subtext: Regarding the devastating scene between Eddie Adams and his angry mother, Joanna Gleason asked Paul Thomas Anderson if the material reflected the relationship between him and his own mother. Anderson became very quiet and did not answer the question. Gleason then told Anderson "You don't have to forgive her."
• Star-Making Role: Mark Wahlberg's acting career took off after playing the role of Dirk Diggler.
• Throw It In!:
  • The Angrish example mentioned on the main page was a typo by Anderson that he decided to leave.
  • The joke at the end of the film with the misspelling of "Rodriguez" on the sign was a result of PT Anderson's typo which rendered it "Rodriquez".
  • Little Bill's line as written was "I'm a little distracted. There's a guy with his dick in my wife's ass." On the second take, William H. Macy said "My fucking wife has an ass in her cock." Paul Thomas Anderson made him do a couple more takes, but then ended up using the second take with the garbled line, which Macy considered to be a sign of his genius.
  • Laurel Holloman as Sheryl Lynn ad-libbed the line "Your cock is so beautiful", which pleased Paul Thomas Anderson so much that he hugged her.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Ben Affleck, Christian Bale, Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio^note He did Titanic (1997) instead, Stephen Dorff, Ethan Hawke, Jason Lee and Joaquin Phoenix^note He refused to play a porn star were originally offered the part of Dirk Diggler.
  • Gwyneth Paltrow was offered the part of Rollergirl. Drew Barrymore and Tatum O'Neal were also up for the role.
  • Warren Beatty, Albert Brooks, Harvey Keitel, Bill Murray, Jack Nicholson and Sydney Pollack, were offered the part of Jack Horner.
  • Samuel L. Jackson was offered the part of Buck Swope.
  • Marisa Tomei was offered the part of Amber Waves.
  • Jack Black was considered for the role of Scotty J.
  • John Turturro and Sean Penn turned down the role of Rahad Jackson.
  • While Anderson intended to cast Melora Walters as Jessie St. Vincent, the studio wanted a bigger name for the part. He offered the role to Patricia Arquette, knowing she would decline, and the role ultimately went to Walters.
  • The notorious murder-suicide scene was originally intended to be much more violent and graphic than what was shown.
  • A scene was shot where Dirk's parents are shown being killed in a car crash, but it ended up being cut.

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