|
Recently Released In Theaters Reviews
2008 FALL MOVIE PREVIEW Bangkok Dangerous Mister Foe Everybody Wants to be Italian Babylon A.D. College Disaster Movie Traitor Hamlet 2 The House Bunny The Longshots Death Race The Rocker Tropic Thunder Mirrors Recently Added Spotlights Nicolas Cage Anna Faris Katharine McPhee Emma Stone James Franco Seth Rogen Rosie Perez Danny McBride Matthew Goode Will Ferrell John C. Reilly Heath Ledger Christian Bale Aaron Eckhart Maggie Gyllenhaal |
|||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
|
Interview By: Rocco Passafuime No actor in the entertainment world has seemingly had less to fear than Mark Wahlberg. Raised in the streets of Boston, MA, he had already weathered a rough storm of drug abuse and several acts of violence and crime that already threatened to doom his prospects. As Wahlberg approached adulthood, he also worked his way through the potential downfalls of early superstardom, teen idol fame, and considerable controversy as the frontman for the hip-hop group Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch. However, it wasn’t until he began his career as an actor that Mark fully had proven the depths of just how seemingly unconquerable, and to take from one of his many films, Invincible he really was. After a string of early nods in Renaissance Man, The Basketball Diaries, and Boogie Nights, Wahlberg’s career really took off as an actor, starting in mostly hit after hit, including Three Kings, The Perfect Storm, The Italian Job, Four Brothers, Invincible, and The Departed, the last garnering him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. Now the 37 year-old actor hopes to continue his seemingly unbreakable hot streak with his new role in the M. Night Shymalan thriller The Happening. However, despite his considerable skill as an actor, Mark claims he was still initially not entirely comfortable with stepping into the shoes of Philadelphia high school science teacher. “I was paranoid because I was a high school dropout, so (chuckles) I wasn’t a good student,” Wahlberg recounts, “I had to portray a teacher that was really good at his job with kids who loved him. I didn’t tell Night that.” “I didn’t know if he knew much about my past, but I definitely got a GED science book and spent a lot of time walking around the Ben Franklin Institute, following kids around on their class field trips,” he continues, “Because in other films, I’ve spoken other languages and it’s one thing for me to be able to say the words, but I think I need to feel confident enough to understand them to convey them.” Unlike most thrillers that tell of ghosts and monsters, The Happening has a rather unique spiritual subtext involving a mysterious plague that robs of speech and physical ability and leads to death. Mark claims that what ultimately persuaded Shymalan, in his view, to choose him for the role, in his view, his spirituality. “I think Night cast me because of my strong faith, but, then, we’d do a take and he’d be like, ‘That was great. What were you thinking about?’ and I was like, ‘Jesus.’ And he went, ‘Oh, we got to do it again (laughing)’,” Wahlberg believes, “I didn’t understand that at all. I’m like ‘It’s not going to change if it’s going to be Jesus every time.’ And he said like ‘Oh, my God, what were you thinking about?’ and I said, ‘Jesus, baby,’ He’s like ‘We got to do it again,’ and I was like, ‘Oh, my God!’ But, yeah, obviously, ... |
|
|||||||||
