Why Mark Wahlberg Nearly Passed On The Film That Skyrocketed His Acting Career

Before he started acting in the late ’90s, Mark Wahlberg was an established rapper and model. He’d worked with Kate Moss on a famous Calvin Klein underwear campaign — allegedly, it was a pretty uncomfortable photo shoot for Moss — and often appeared shitless in music videos and album covers. “When I first heard about the film and the subject matter, it was not appealing to me,” the “Good Vibrations” rapper remembered in a conversation with Cigar Aficionado. “I came from the whole Marky Mark thing, pulling down my pants, Calvin Klein underwear — I just didn’t know if this was just, like, the next level of exploiting me, and all of a sudden we’re going to lose the underwear,” he continued.

Ultimately, after meeting with Anderson and talking about the script in depth, Wahlberg decided to sign on to the project. This was largely due to the immensely talented people who were also rumored to be involved — Burt Reynolds was eventually cast as one of the leads, but Robert DeNiro and Sean Penn were also in talks to star. In the beginning, Mark Wahlberg knew that “Boogie Nights” would either be a total hit or a catastrophic miss, telling Kevin Hart on an episode of his talk show “Hart to Heart” that he understood the premise wouldn’t appeal to everyone. Ultimately, the movie was a total success, and Wahlberg’s star skyrocketed.