One Boogie Nights Scene Had Extras Walking Off The Set, But It Wasn't A Sex Scene

Paul Thomas Anderson's 1997 "Boogie Nights" is an unflinching look at the heyday — and swift decline — of the cinematic porn industry. It begins in the late 1970s when adult films were on the upswing, and the cocaine parties came with no consequences. It seemed, for a brief window, that sex films would be continued to be accepted into the mainstream, and porn would shake off the sleaze and shame ordinarily associated with it. "Boogie Nights" ends in the early 1980s, however, when porn moved to VHS, users couldn't kick their cocaine habits, and the money ran out. Several of the characters will end up dead or in prison. 

To highlight the era's high point, however, Anderson included a scene wherein Dirk Diggler (Mark Wahlberg) was given multiple prestigious awards for his porn work. Indeed, each of the film's main characters is given an award, and they all get to feel positively chuffed about their hard work and their contributions to a sex-positive world. 

In order to film the awards show, Anderson hired a room full of extras, each one dressed in period-appropriate costumes and eager to play along. It might have been one of the more complicated scenes in "Boogie Nights" to wrangle, merely because so many people were involved. 

Anderson, however, was remiss in one of his directorial duties while shooting the scene, causing several extras to walk off the set. In "Nights," William H. Macy played an assistant director named Little Bill, and the actor spoke to Vulture in 2022 about his experiences on the film. Macy recalled that Anderson brought in hundreds of extras ... but failed to tell them his movie was about the porn industry. 

Macy recalled the walk-out with clarity. He even remembered the exact moment people stood up and left. According to Macy, the only details the extras were given was that "Boogie Nights" was set in the 1970s, that they should arrive on set in 1970s garb, and that Burt Reynolds would be there. "I guess it was assumed that people would ask and everybody knew what was going on," Macy commented. 

Then Macy's co-star, Melora Walters, who played porn star Jessie St. Vincent, got up on the podium to give an award, and her breezy line reading, paired with her direct language, startled people. As  Macy told the story: 

"Paul said, 'We're going to give out an award, and you love this guy, Dirk Diggler. So everyone's thrilled, you can whistle, scream, jump to your feet, give him a big ovation.' And Melora Walters gets up to the mic, with that great voice of hers, and she says, 'And the winner is ... oh, and I can't wait to get that big c*** in my mouth: Dirk Diggler!' Silence reigned over the room. About 40 of them got up, very quietly gathered up their stuff, got in their cars, and drove home. So, the call went out to get some more extras. And this time Paul said, 'Okay, it's about the porn industry.'"

Apparently, the second round of extras was made privy to the subject matter of "Boogie Nights," and none of them walked out when Walters delivered her line. It seems that the shock was all that was required to scare away certain extras. None of the actual sex scenes or nude scenes in "Boogie Nights" got a startled reaction from the actors; they knew what they were acting in.