Trivia / The Basketball Diaries

• Dawson Casting: Mark Wahlberg was widely felt to look too old to play a teenager.
• Hostility on the Set: Initially, Leonardo DiCaprio was completely against Mark Wahlberg's casting, as Wahlberg was still primarily a musician at the time and he missed a line reading meeting due to his flight from a Caribbean vacation being delayed. However, once Wahlberg was on set and proved he was dedicated to the film and acting as a whole, DiCaprio warmed up to him and the two became friends. They would team up again years later in The Departed.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: The film has been out of print on DVD and Blu-ray in the U.S. since the early 2010s, and copies that are available are usually imports. It's also never been released for digital purchase or made available for streaming.
• What Could Have Been:
  • A popular misconception holds that River Phoenix was set to play the lead before tragically dying. This is not entirely accurate. Phoenix was a big fan of the book, and as the film version entered various stages of readiness, he was always the frontrunner. However, prior to his death, he had declined the role, due to a combination of feeling he was too old to play a fifteen-year-old, and trying to broaden his range with more adult roles. Other candidates included Matt Dillon, Anthony Michael Hall and Eric Stoltz.
  • Stephen Lang was offered the role of Jim's basketball coach, named "Swifty" in the script. Lang declined, citing the misrepresentation of the book in the script. The part was subsequently toned down as a result.
• Write What You Know: Jim's diary serves as a tool for him to do this. It also reflects the original author's intent with his book.

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