While promoting the new Peter Berg directed movie Lone Survivor, Mark Wahlberg recently had a lot to say about actors who go through military training for movie roles.
“I don’t give a s*** if you get your a** busted. You get to go home at the end of the day. You get to go to your hotel room. You get to order f****ng chicken. Or your steak. Whatever the f*** it is. For actors to sit there and talk about ‘oh I went to SEAL training? I don’t give a f**k what you did… You don’t do what these guys did. For somebody to sit there and say ‘my job was as difficult as being in the military.’ How f**king dare you, while you sit in a makeup chair for 2 hours.”
I agree with his sentiment that it’s not the same thing and actors are usually paid handsomely for training they receive for a movie role. It shows how emotionally invested Mark Wahlberg was in this project. He then addressed why his response was so strong:
“I don’t know, it just weighed so heavily – what Marcus went through, what those guys went through, what their loved ones went through,” he said, referring to Marcus Luttrell, the Navy SEAL he plays in the movie.
I’m genuinely excited for this movie now. I’ve always considered Peter Berg to be a good director and this seems to be him making up for Battleship. And Mark Wahlberg having a borderline breakdown only makes me more enthusiastic for this project and how much emotional weight it will have. Anybody else as positive as I am, and do you agree with Marky Mark or did he cross the line?
Lone Survivor opens on January 10th 2014 with a cast that includes Ben Foster (Ain’t Them Bodies Saints), Emile Hirsch (Savages) and Taylor Kitsch (John Carter) and Eric Bana (Closed Circuit).
Originally published November 16, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
