First off, PTA is a great director and actors from Tom Cruise all the way down to DDL and Bradley Cooper have given great performances in his movies. Mark Wahlberg is a weak actor and even PTA couldn't get a good performance out of him here. It's unfortunate that Leonardo Dicaprio passed on this to do Titanic as it would have elevated the movie much more. Burt's character is so much more interesting. A porn director who wants to be a real filmmaker as well the movie should have had him as the focus. Reynold's career at this point was pretty much in the doldrums at this point. Anderson pulled a Tarantino in that he casts a washed up actor who was great in the past with Deliverance and Smokey and the Bandit(which I'm almost sure PTA had seen) and gives him a gift here. Reynold's was great in the movie got an Oscar nomination and won the Golden Globe. But it's weird that leading up the awards season he was badmouthing the movie telling relatives not to see it. His GG speech is kind of funny his reaction is like "wow really you guys liked my performance?" He seemed so surprised and befuddled. It's a shame he was kind of blind to what he was offered. And yet PTA wanted to cast him as Jimmy Gator in Magnolia which he would have been perfect for, but Reynolds passed on it. Quite a shame really.