It was only when Mark Wahlberg actually sat down with Paul Thomas Anderson that he decided to take the risk and sign on for the lead role in Boogie Nights.
Mark Wahlberg slowly started to be won over by Paul Thomas Anderson’s screenplay, though, and decided to watch the filmmaker’s previous work to help sway his decision.
At the time, the only feature film that Paul Thomas Anderson had released was the 1996 neo-noir crime thriller Hard Eight, an expansion of his 1993 short film Cigarettes & Coffee.
During the same interview with ABC News, which was conducted to celebrate the upcoming 20th anniversary of the release of the movie in October, Mark Wahlberg admitted that he was offered the role immediately after reading with Philip Seymour Hoffman, John C. Reilly and Thomas Jane.