Mark Wahlberg has starred in multiple critically acclaimed movies earning him a few accolades as well as critical nominations. While he has remained largely unproblematic, the actor’s co-star, in one of his first Oscar-nominated movies, turned into a rage monster after a clash with the director.
One of the first acclaimed movies that the Ted star starred in was the 1997 released Boogie Nights. The movie was a critical success, leading to three Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor and Actress and Best Screenplay. However, the conditions on the set were tense, as Wahlberg’s co-star Burt Reynolds, and the director Paul Thomas Anderson weren’t on amicable terms.
Mark Wahlberg’s Co-Star Wasn’t Happy With The Director
Boogie Nights was a commercial and critical success, but Mark Wahlberg‘s co-star Burt Reynolds wasn’t all too happy starring in the movie. The reason was his dislike of the young director Paul Thomas Anderson. In the years after the release of the movie, Reynolds has spoken multiple times about his experience on the set of the movie.
In a 2015 interview with GQ, the actor even stated,
“Personality-wise, we didn’t fit. I think mostly because he was young and full of himself. Every shot we did, it was like the first time [that shot had ever been done]. I remember the first shot we did in Boogie Nights, where I drive the car to Grauman’s Theater. After he said, ‘Isn’t that amazing?’ And I named five pictures that had the same kind of shot. It wasn’t original. But if you have to steal, steal from the best.”
But his contempt of the director and movie didn’t end there as he later admitted that he would never watch the movie for he hated it too much (via The Guardian).
Paul Thomas Anderson On His Feud With Burt Reynolds
Despite accepting that the rumors of his feud with Burt Reynolds were true, Paul Thomas Anderson didn’t think they were much of a problem. In an interview with The Bill Simmons Podcast back in 2017, the director stated,
“I think that when Burt and I kind of got into it, it may have been the day before or the day after, but it was a really tense three days on the set of Boogie Nights. The other 57 days were really fun and a lot of laughs, but there were three tense days there in the middle where Mark was fighting with Burt, or in the film. Looking back, it was really in the nasty part of the movie, too, when really everything’s kind of going wrong.”
Despite Reynolds’ dislike for him, the director had even offered his next critically acclaimed feature film, Magnolia. But Reynolds had right away rejected it and later called it too long (via Collider).
Even though Mark Wahlberg’s co-star might have hated both Boogie Nights and Magnolia, his contempt cannot hide the fact that both movies are well-deserved successful classics.
Boogie Nights and Magnolia can be rented on Apple TV.
Source: GQ, The Guardian, The Bill Simmons Podcast, and Collider
