Rewatchables Reference

• Bill: The opening Steadicam shot at Hot Tracks in Reseda – 'This is in the running for best Steadicam flexing-my-muscle shot ever.' They did 77 takes over a 12-hour shoot day. The camera starts on a crane, the operator hops off and walks into the club, and we meet all seven main characters post-Maurice.
• Bill's #1 most rewatchable stretch: From Little Bill's 'my wife has an ass in her cock' to the Colonel's OD ('Oh, you think so, Doctor?'), to Scotty J's arrival, to Jack telling Eddie 'You've got a great big cock – may I see it?' – followed by the Colonel's quadruple-take reaction. 'That might be the greatest 9 minutes of my life.'
• Sean: The New Year's Eve 1980 party – his most rewatchable scene. 'How many movies have two indelible characters show up an hour and a half into the movie?' Todd Parker and Floyd Gondoli both arrive this late in the film.
• The Little Bill murder-suicide sequence – one shot, Macy carrying the scene. He sees his wife, goes to the car, puts the champagne on top, gets the gun from the glove compartment, locks his car door, leaves the champagne, then walks back in. 'The whole movie turns on a dime.'
• The Dirk-going-to-be-a-star montage: shopping spree, hair done, reading reviews, split screens, and the disco dance sequence choreographed by Adam Shankman.
• The Brock Landers pitch in the van – Dirk earnestly pitching the character while Jack responds 'Those are great names' – right into the second annual adult film awards.
• The Rahad Jackson / Awesome Mixtape #6 scene – Bill: 'Dirk flatlining... they were really throwing the firecrackers for two days and he actually had a breakdown. They just capture it with the camera and it's amazing.'
• Dirk vs. Jack – 'You're not the boss of me.' 'You're not my mother.' From the oral history, Burt Reynolds was a pain in the ass and had a huge blowout with PTA the day before; some theorized PTA was winding him up to get the right amount of tension.
• The Scotty J kissing scene – 'One of the most uncomfortable 3-minute scenes in the history of movies. You know it's coming, you know it's probably going to happen, and then it actually happens. And then the I'm a fucking idiot part.'
• The pool party mega-scene – filmed at 107 degrees in West Covina, introduces Eddie to the gang, features Reed and Dirk becoming instant friends like third graders, Buck talking about his 'chocolate love' look, and culminates with the 'Spill the Wine' needle drop.

• The soundtrack – 25 years of spouting out lines from the movie.
• Bill: Jack talking about Amber – 'She's the best. She's a wonderful mother. She's a mother to all those who need love.'
• Reed Rothschild as a multi-talented character: magician, bartender, poet, songwriter, could make margaritas, knew how to cut pure rock cocaine, played guitar, squatted 350, and looked like Han Solo.
• Scotty J's 'Can I kiss you on the mouth?' meltdown – 'just been a funny joke for 25 years.'
• 'It's a real film, Jack' – Bill says this line has transcended the movie and he's tried to work it into everyday conversations for years.
• Sean: The cast – had maybe one Oscar nomination to its name when the movie was made and probably has north of 25 now. 'Multiple people have won Best Actor and Best Actress in that group.'
• Chris: The way PTA's thematic material ripples across his later films – the Roller Girl / Eddie beaten up / Buck and Jesse at the donut shop sequence is basically 'Magnolia'. 'He just shoots 'Magnolia' in 'Boogie Nights'.'
• Roller Girl's 'I don't take my skates off and don't fucking comment me.'
• Dirk's room: posters of Bruce Lee, Cheryl Tiegs, Al Pacino in Serpico, and a car. 'He's 17 and that's a 12-year-old's room.'
• The reactions when everyone first sees Dirk's penis – Ricky Jay, Little Bill already messed up emotionally, Scotty J quivering, Becky and Reed doing the head tilt.
• Veronica Hart as the judge – 'incredible stunt casting in 1997. She was one of the OGs.' PTA called her 'the Meryl Streep of porn.'

• Bill gives the Kid Cudi 'Pursuit of Happiness' Award to 'Spill the Wine' during the pool party – the quiet part of the song is playing, then the girl walks across from the coke table, throws her cigarette into the bush, jumps in the pool, and the song kicks in.
• Also highlighted: 'You Sexy Thing' when Scotty J is introduced, 'Driver's Seat' when Floyd Gondoli arrives.
• Chris: 'Best of My Love' by The Emotions.
• 'Jungle Fever' kicks in when Jack starts scheming on luring Dirk into his family, and 'Do Your Thing' at the conclusion of the New Year's Eve party.
• Sean: 'You Got the Touch' from the animated Transformers movie – 'I was the absolute perfect age to see this movie for this part.'

• The opening Steadicam shot – starts on a crane, camera operator hops off and walks through the club. Bill: 'I watched this 10 times over the last week trying to figure out how they did it. I don't understand how they did it.' They cite I Am Cuba as an influence, particularly the shot where the camera goes into a pool.
• Sean's favorite shot in the movie: Amber looking up from doing coke and watching Dirk doing a cannonball in the pool while 'Fooled Around and Fell in Love' plays – her surrogate son jumping in while her real son's phone call goes unanswered. 'That's a deeply literary moment. That's a moment you find in a great novel.'
• The first sex scene between Amber and Dirk – the camera goes inside Jack's camera and we see the film mag run out. 'Got in his Fincher bag there.'
• The pool party underwater shot – the camera goes down into the pool and comes back up with sound, referencing I Am Cuba.

• Bill: Jessie St. Vincent (Melora Walters) – 'She's very good in the role. I still don't know what that role is.' Says the deleted scene where she talks about her career was by far the most interesting scene she has in the entire movie.
• Chris and Sean don't have a weak link. Chris notes Buck's plotline is his least favorite of the major plots on rewatch, but doesn't call it the weak link. 'It doesn't mean Cheadle's bad.'

• The surprise impact of Wahlberg and Reynolds in '97 has faded – they're such a known quantity now.
• Dirk and Roller Girl both being 17 and the stars of the movie.
• PTA's director's commentary – 'He honestly sounds like he's been hanging out with the guys from the last hour of the movie.' Compares it to early Twitter: 'The first two years of Twitter when everybody had crazy tweets.'
• Bill: Burt Reynolds hating the movie and still being 'pissy about it 8-9 years later, even in 2014 he was shitting on PTA.' Reynolds fired his agent after seeing a rough cut. PTA offered him a 'Magnolia' part; Reynolds said fuck off and did Driven instead.
• Bill: 'Are we sure Amber Waves was a nice person?' – She had everybody hooked on drugs. Chris: 'Jack, Colonel, Amber – all the people in relative positions of power are fucking predators.'
• PTA's director's commentary aged both best and worst – it's candid and hilarious but he'll never be that unguarded again. Compares it to the Affleck/Damon 'Armageddon' and 'Good Will Hunting' commentaries.

• Sean: 'Are we sure Dirk's Dick was big enough?' PTA initially made a 12-inch version but thought it looked like a circus freak on Wahlberg's 5'7 frame. They went with 7 inches flaccid. Bill: 'I would have gone like two inches longer and thicker.'
• Bill: Wahlberg should have won the '97 Best Actor Oscar over Jack Nicholson – 'I 80% believe this. I think it was a harder part.'
• Sean: This movie doesn't exist without 'Goodfellas' – 'Is it basically West Coast 'Goodfellas'?' Bill: 'It's 'Goodfellas' with Robert Altman sprinkled in pretty heavily.'
• Bill: If PTA announced he was redoing 'Boogie Nights' as an 8-episode Apple series, 'my first reaction would be sheer delight and excitement and then I would talk myself out of it, but the first 5 seconds I'd be fired up.'

• PTA debunks the Leo vs. Wahlberg urban legend in their interview – 'There was no Leo vs. Mark because Leo just didn't decide to do the film.' All three hosts agree it worked out for the best: 'That loser dumb guy quality that Wahlberg imparts, Leo was incapable of.'
• Joaquin Phoenix was considered but his brother had just died. PTA: 'He was young... I wonder if he was ready as an actor yet.'
• For Jack Horner: Sydney Pollack, Harvey Keitel, Bill Murray, Albert Brooks, and Warren Beatty all definitely declined. Robert De Niro was in talks at one point. PTA realized Warren Beatty actually wanted to play Dirk: 'I started to figure out that Warren really wanted to play Dirk Diggler.'
• Sean Penn was up for the Rahad/Alfred Molina role. John Turturro turned down the Molina part.
• Sam Jackson turned down Buck – he was in Hard Eight. 'He would have crushed it. He would have been the only person in 'Goodfellas', 'Pulp Fiction', and 'Boogie Nights'.'
• PTA wanted Melora Walters for Jessie St. Vincent. Studio wanted a bigger name, so he offered the role to Patricia Arquette knowing she'd decline.
• Drew Barrymore was up for Roller Girl. Tatum O'Neal gave a 'terrific audition' – the casting director said the tape was 'top secret.'
• Heather Graham wasn't initially considered because she'd never done nudity – her agent asked if she could read for it and she crushed it.
• Marisa Tomei was considered for Amber Waves.

• Winner: The donut shop robber – 'That guy comes in hot. That guy did not go and have a big career.'
• Other nominees: Alfred Molina as Rahad Jackson, Johnny Doe (the replacement actor), Roller Girl's limo attack, and the Colonel's cellmate.

• Bill: The guy in the church parking lot who pays Dirk for the jerk-off – 'I've seen that guy many times and I'm always like, oh, the guy from the church parking lot.' Also the same guy who shoots the robber in the donut shop.
• Chris: John Doe, lead singer of X, playing Johnny Doe – 'His performance rivals Dwight Yoakam's in 'Wedding Crashers' in the musicians-participating-in-custody-mediation category.'
• Robert Ridgely (The Colonel) previously held this spot but was promoted to other awards.

• Co-winners: The Colonel (Robert Ridgely) and Floyd Gondoli (Philip Baker Hall). Sean compares them to the LeBron/Kyrie Cavs Finals graphic – 'We couldn't have done it without them.'
• Other nominees: Buck as stereo store manager, Alfred Molina as Rahad, the Colonel's cellmate, Dirk's mom, and Roller Girl's classmate who gives her the blowjob sign.

• Bill: Drew Barrymore as Jessie St. Vincent instead of Melora Walters would make the movie better.
• Sean's 2022 Jack Horner picks: #1 Josh Brolin ('haunted me after I rewatched the five-or-ten scene'), #2 Kevin Costner ('Does he do his almost-cried face?'), #3 Mel Gibson (baggage and all), twist pick Bryan Cranston. Also Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Cruise.
• Sean: Amber Waves – Jessica Chastain ('easiest pick of all time'), though Bill notes she's too old. Bill throws out Margot Robbie. Chris suggests Kirsten Dunst and Scarlett Johansson.
• Dirk: Zac Efron 10 years ago. Sean suggests Miles Teller and Glen Powell as Dirk and Reed. Timothée Chalamet doesn't have the physicality.
• Roller Girl: Sydney Sweeney ('the easiest job in America'), Florence Pugh, Anya Taylor-Joy.
• Sean: Jonathan Majors as Buck. Jesse Plemons as Scotty J – 'That's pretty great.'

• They flew out to a 35,000-square-foot warehouse in the Midwest called Hullabaloo for all the period-accurate clothes.
• Burt Reynolds vs. PTA: 'He either almost hit PTA or as he was about to hit him, somebody grabbed his arm.' Philip Baker Hall: 'Everyone had to walk carefully around Burt because he seemed ready to explode.' William H. Macy cracked a joke about Smokey and the Bandit and thought Reynolds was going to 'come across the bed and knock my teeth out.' Thomas Jane got into a shoving match with Reynolds; Burt apologized with a bottle of champagne.
• The first prosthetic penis was 12 inches; they settled on 7. Wahlberg had to put his own Dick in the prosthetic and 'would walk around' with it on.
• Robert Elswit and PTA 'watched every existing porno that was ever shot on film' in preparation.
• Jamie Gillis's groundbreaking 'On the Prowl' series (1989) inspired the limo scene. Gillis was 'horrified' when his work was parodied: 'They're taking my little joy and my little treasure and make it ugly, stupid, and violent.'
• The original Dirk Diggler oil painting sold on eBay in 2001 for $500, then resold in 2017 for $3,000. Bill: 'I would pay $10,000 right now.'
• The song 'Boogie Nights' by Heatwave wasn't in the movie because the lead singer, a devout born-again Christian, refused to clear it.
• The 4th Adult Film Awards deleted scene – Bill's favorite deleted scene of all time. In their PTA interview, Paul remembered Don Cheadle 'in one of some outfits, maybe an Earth, Wind & Fire kind of outfit' and started smiling.
• The Becky Barnett deleted scene uses Fleetwood Mac's 'Tusk' – PTA always loved the song and 'it really hurt his feelings to have to cut it.' The scene explains why Dirk agrees to go with Todd on the drug deal (needs money to fix his wrecked car).
• A lot of 'funky stuff' happened at the West Covina house during filming – 'a lot of stuff that was right on the line between the porn world and the real world was being recreated.'
• Nina Hartley on the sex scenes: 'We were not really having sex, but my partner was not taped down. We hid it in the old-fashioned way between the tops of my thighs.'

• Mark Wahlberg: Yes – his Hall of Fame plaque movie. 'It's the best movie that's built around him.' Sean notes 'The Departed' might be his best performance, but it's not built around him.
• PTA: Bill says no career-wise – 'I don't think he fully had the juice until 'There Will Be Blood'.' Both Sean and Bill rank 'Boogie Nights' #2 in PTA's filmography.
• Robert Ridgely: Yes, 100%.
• Nina Hartley: Yes, as a mainstream actress.
• Philip Seymour Hoffman background acting: Here – 'Because he's just in that one shot.'
• Burt Reynolds: No.
• Thomas Jane: Bill says 61 – 'After you played Mickey Mantle, I was like this guy, A+ lister.'
• Heather Graham: Bill says Austin Powers 2 – 'Coming out of that it's like this is going to be one of the biggest stars of this decade.'
• West Covina: Yes.
• Julianne Moore: Maybe Far from Heaven. 'When that movie came out, people were like, wow, she might be the best living actress.'
• Philip Baker Hall: Yes.
• Luis Guzman: This or 'Out of Sight'.
• John C. Reilly: 'Step Brothers' or Chicago.
• Donut shops in cinema: Yes.
• Imported Italian leather: Discussed alongside Ricardo Montalban and David Proval's jacket on The Sopranos.
• Sister Christian and Jessie's Girl: Yes – this movie is the apex.
• Ricky Jay: Yes.
• Movies about porn: Yes.
• Reseda as a film location: Karate Kid edges it out, but Tom Petty mentioning Reseda is also in the conversation.
• Characters named Floyd: Bill has Floyd Gondoli over Floyd from 'True Romance'; Sean disagrees.
• Best movie parties: Sean argues 'Boogie Nights' might have the best parties in movie history.

• Torrance to Reseda is 33 miles – Eddie's taking the bus 90 minutes round trip to work at a disco.
• Eddie's pricing: $5 to look, $10 for the jerk-off. Bill: 'Terrible pricing. Who's not just paying the 10?'
• Amber calls her ex-husband at 2:30 AM after doing cocaine, smoking, and drinking to see if her seven-year-old son is up.
• The four people Floyd brought off the street as 'the stars of the future' – 'They all looked like runaways.'
• The donut shop has $10,000+ in $100 bills. 'It's a fucking donut shop.'
• Buck's Egyptian look – 'Who would be in a porn movie looking like that in 1980?'
• Dirk never trying coke for the first two years of his porn career is 'bizarre.'
• Where was Cosmo, the Chinese kid, during the drug shootout at Rahad's house?
• The cops apparently never come to Jack's house after Little Bill's murder-suicide on New Year's Eve.

Bill rattles off: Wayne Jenkins, Danny Trejo, Catherine Hahn, Steve Buscemi, Sam Jackson, JT Walsh, or Philip Baker Hall. Does a Colonel impression: 'You know what, Colonel? You're going away a long fucking time, big boy.'

PTA. All three agree instantly.

• Was Jack gay, bisexual, asexual, or 'post-sexual'? Sean thinks he's seen too much porn and maybe the equipment doesn't work anymore. Bill: 'The only time we really see him clicking with another person in a way that feels a little sexual is when he meets Dirk.'
• Did Jack and Amber sleep in the same bed? Sean: 'I think everybody's sleeping everywhere.'
• How did it go for Cherylin's next few boyfriends post-Dirk? 'It's a bad beat.'
• Did Little Bill's wife deserve to die? Sean: Nina Hartley's read is that she kept doing it to challenge him to 'step up to be a man – not to kill her, but to take her back.'
• What was up with Dirk's dad? Chris describes the haunting shot of him sitting alone at 4 AM on the bed, fully clothed, listening to the fighting.
• What happened to Amber's documentary directing career after Fire and Fire? Sean: 'She went on to make the Paradise Lost films.'
• Did Todd Parker appear in porn films? Sean: 'No, I think Todd was the drug guy.' He was a dancer, possibly at clubs.
• What year did Roller Girl finally take off her skates? Bill: 'About 1989. She's like, might be time.'
• Did Dirk regain his porn fame on video? Bill: 'If we're modeling this after John Holmes, I think he's dead in like 1987 of AIDS.'
• If Rahad shot one of Dirk or Reed, who would you save? All three: Reed. 'Reed has too much to offer society – literature, music, magic, personal fitness.'
• Where the fuck was Ringo? 'He's absent from the whole movie. Was he dead? Was he hiding?'
• Did Buck Swope start Spotify with Daniel Ek? 'Four channels. But it's the version of Spotify that only has country.'

• Chris: The prosthetic penis. Also the pre-accident Corvette, Dirk's Dojo ported into your apartment, and the first matching outfits Dirk, Scotty, and Reed get together.
• Bill: Jack's house (#1), the movie posters they made for the film (Spanish Pantalones poster is 'unbelievable'), Jack's blue van ('I would buy that right now'), the Dirk Diggler oil paintings, Dirk's Corvette, and Awesome Mixtape #6.

• Bill: 'Everyone's blessed with one special thing.'
• Sean: Don't do cocaine.

• Sean: 'Goodfellas', Raging Bull, Nashville (all major PTA influences), Wonderland (the Val Kilmer John Holmes crime movie), and 'Hardcore' (Paul Schrader) – 'the other side of all this, but two major bummer movies.'
• Chris: 'American Gigolo' – 'same thing, Old Trader is usually at the center of these movies.'
• Bill: Nashville, or Hard 8 and then 'Boogie Nights' to see 'how PTA grew.' Also floated The Opening of Misty Beethoven for the truly daring double feature.

PTA. All three agree. Sean: 'It's hard to imagine taking anybody out of this movie and being like, oh, it's the same movie or it's better, but PTA wins the movie.'

• Craig loves 'Boogie Nights' – 'I just love all these movies about ensemble cast of young people who are just like figuring it out, aimless. I love young LA people. The Dirk Diggler I'm-going-to-be-somebody storyline always works for me.'
• Craig also asks whether PTA hates modern porn – the montage about post-Dirk Diggler porn with implants and meaner content. Sean: 'Those guys all feel that way. They grew up with it, and it was better made.'