Burt Reynolds Turned Down ‘Boogie Nights’ 7 Times and Refused to Watch It

Burt Reynolds was not just a popular character actor, but an icon. Throughout the ’70s, he was one of the biggest sex symbols in pop culture. Reynolds appeared in dozens of popular movies throughout his career, including The Longest Yard, Smokey and the Bandit, and The Cannonball Run. One of Reynolds’ most iconic films is one that he appeared in during the latter half of his career. Boogie Nights featured a star-studded cast, including Reynolds, Mark Wahlberg, and Julianne Moore. While the film became a huge hit, Reynolds himself would later admit that he didn’t like acting in the movie. He even refused to watch it.

What role does Burt Reynolds have in ‘Boogie Nights’?

Boogie Nights was released in 1997. The comedy-drama tells the story of a young man who washes dishes in a nightclub only to get “discovered” and embark on an illustrious career as a porn star. Throughout the course of the film, viewers watch as Eddie Adams, renamed “Dirk Diggler” rises to fame, only to get involved with drugs and make a series of poor financial decisions, leading to his downfall in the ’80s.

Burt Reynolds portrays Jack Horner in Boogie Nights, a veteran porn filmmaker who senses promise in Eddie from the start. It is Horner who gives Eddie his screen name and helps him navigate the early years of his career. For Reynolds, the role was a prime one. It played on his own status as a Hollywood sex symbol as well as his tenure in the industry.

What did Burt Reynolds later say about ‘Boogie Nights’?

Boogie Nights was an immediate hit. It made a star out of young actor Mark Wahlberg and won a slew of awards. But Reynolds didn’t have many good things to say about the film in the years that followed. According to BuzzFeed, Reynolds admitted to disliking the director of the film, Paul Thomas Anderson. He told GQ that the director was “young and full of himself.”

He would also note that the film’s subject matter made him uncomfortable and that he didn’t enjoy watching Wahlberg walk around with a fake erection. Reynolds would later tell Conan O’Brien that “it just wasn’t my kind of film,” and that he turned it down seven times before eventually accepting the role of Jack Horner. Reynolds also refused to ever watch the finished movie.

‘Boogie Nights’ is an award-winning film

Interestingly enough, Reynolds isn’t the only star of the film who regretted acting in Boogie Nights. Wahlberg himself later described how he regrets acting in the film due to the explicit subject matter. “So, I don’t want to compromise my artistic integrity or choices based on my faith or my family, but I also have other things to consider and being a little bit older and a little wiser, the idea of having to explain that movie and the reason behind it to my kids is another issue,” Wahlberg said. 

In spite of it all, Boogie Nights made waves in Hollywood. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Original Screenplay for Anderson, Best Supporting Actress for Moore, and Best Supporting Actor for Reynolds. It also received praise from many top critics.

To this day, the film is considered by many critics and fans to be a clever, tongue-in-cheek look at the iconography of the underground porn industry of the ’70s — even if several of the film’s biggest stars didn’t think too highly of Boogie Nights.