Mark Wahlberg

“Emmanuel Itier: What was it about this project that made you want to both act in it and produce it?

Mark Wahlberg: Well, I had worked with James [Gray] on The Yards, and he was writing his next screenplay and he asked me if I wanted to be a part of it. He had originally set it up at Warner Brothers. I had introduced him to Lorenzo di Bonaventura after we made Three Kings, and I had finished The Yards and I was very excited about my experience of working with James, and I just thought he was a super talent. So he wrote the script with me in mind, and then it was very difficult to get it off the ground. We finally got it going, got it out of Warner Brothers, and we had approached a couple of independent financiers and we were finally able to get the movie made. So anything that James is going to do, I would love to be a part of.

EI: Why is it so hard to get films like this made? Why don’t studios like to take risks anymore?

MW: Well, I think originally they had it budgeted for like fifty million dollars, and I think they ended up making the movie for like twenty or maybe twenty-one million dollars. It was just an expensive movie, and it was a risk that they didn’t feel like they were willing to take, I guess. But we were glad that we got to make it the way we did. I think with the amount of money that was spent, it really became a labor of love, and everybody just committed their time. James is the kind of perfectionist that, if given the opportunity, he’d still be shooting right now. So it was good that he only had a certain amount of money to work with.

EI: What did you have to lose with that thirty million?

MW: Just my salary. [Laughs] I don’t know what Joaquin [Phoenix] makes, but my salary for sure. But you know, it was a really tough time because I was about to make another movie, I was about to have my second child, I had left shortly after my first child was born, to work, and that was a very difficult experience. So luckily, he was able to work it out to where this is something that I was trying to get made for such a long time, then it got to the point where I didn’t know if I was gonna be able to be a part of it, which was difficult for me. I had just worked on The Departed with Marty [Scorsese], and I didn’t want to just play cops, although this is a very different role. Still, you know, putting on the uniform just kind of reminds people of something in the past, so… But, like I said, he was able to work it out. I shot for like four and a half weeks, and then I was able to go off and do the other movie, so it worked out great.

EI: Are you still up for the role of Duke in G.I. Joe?

MW: Oh, I have no idea. Lorenzo was talking about it months back, when we were promoting Shooter, but I haven’t seen a script.

EI: Has he been in contact with you over the summer?

MW: No, no. The idea of it seems pretty out there. They haven’t told me totally what they’re going for, so we’ll see. I’m training to do The Fighter, and everything is coming after.

EI: Does fatherhood change things as an actor, in choosing roles?

MW: Definitely. Certainly the kinds of roles that I’m gonna play, and it would be extremely difficult to sign on to do a movie like Boogie Nights now, knowing that I have little kids and a little girl who asks a ton of questions at four, so… We’re gonna still have to have the conversation, but, you know, I don’t want to work forever. I’ve been really focused on me for quite some time now, and they are definitely the priority, so I figure I got a few more years to work really hard, and then if I can make a movie every year and a half or something, then that would be nice.

EI: Do you like the brother dynamic that is in many of your movies?

MW: Certainly. I come from a very large family, and I can certainly identify with that.

EI: How’s the training going for Fighter?

MW: It’s going good–a lot of early mornings. I started training last October, so I’ve been training for almost a year now, and I’ve still got some training ahead of me.

EI: How rigorous is it? What kind of training?

MW: Boxing training, two hours a day. Mickey Ward is one of my favorite fighters of all time, and I think there have been some great boxing movies made, but I don’t think anybody’s ever really looked the part of a champion, and I want to do him justice.

EI: What’s the shooting schedule? When do you start?

MW: You know, with all the strike talk and everything, nobody really knows. Just kind of be prepared when the day comes and hope the day comes. You never know, with everything that’s going on.

EI: What are you going to do to really do justice to the real Mickey Ward?

MW: I’m gonna do the same thing like I did in Invincible. I’m gonna really get in there and make it real. The way fights are covered now, if you watch…there’s a great middleweight fight tonight that I can’t wait to watch. When you see the way they can cover these fights, you can’t do the big looping punches and the big reactions. You gotta go in there and you gotta take a couple shots.

EI: Have you choreographed the whole thing, or will you mix it up a bit?

MW: We’re gonna go in there and mix it up. Certainly, he has some very historical fights and rounds on him, so there are things that we’ll have to duplicate, and certainly anything that me and Brad [Pitt] do training-wise, they had. The brothers sparred together because they couldn’t afford sparring partners and stuff like that, so yeah, we’re gonna have to get in there and make it real.

EI: How was it working with Joaquin?

MW: I love Joaquin [Phoenix]. We have this chemistry, and there’s a familiarity there. You just rely on one another. But he’s intense too, so he was smoking a lot of cigarettes. And he wants to talk about every scene. So you get in a room, and you’re in a room for two hours in the morning. It’s first thing in the morning–he must smoke 12, 15 cigarettes, just kind of mumbling about how much he hates this scene and why, and my part’s great but his part’s bad. And then, of course, we get in there and do it. That’s when it all happens. My approach is to know the lines. James is extremely specific, so I’ll go to him right away and I’ll tell him, basically, to give me a line reading of the whole scene, because I know it’ll turn into that anyway. He’ll tell you, “”Okay, show me,”" “”No, you probably know better than I do,”" and then you’ll do something, and he’s like, “”That’s not what I’m looking for,”" and he’ll kind of show you anyway. I don’t have a problem with that. I’m not gonna do that with a first-time director, certainly, but you know, a writer-director with such a specific vision, I don’t mind being there to just do what he asks me.

EI: Joaquin said he doesn’t enjoy the process of acting. Is that real or just something he projects?

MW: I don’t know. Your guess is as good as mine. I think he enjoys it, but I think he also likes being a dark and tormented artist.

EI: Do you tell him to shut up and stop grousing and just do the scene?

MW: I think I just left the room and went to my trailer and took a little nap or something. Let him and James figure it out. But no, everybody’s process is different. Working with Bobby Duvall, I mean, the guy’s playing my dad, he’s the only actor that I ever saw in every movie and he reminded me of my real dad. So when I found out that he was playing the part, I was ecstatic. And he just kind of comes in, and he knows his lines, and you just try to make it real. And but like I said, everybody’s process is different.

EI: Are you involved at all still in Entourage? It’s had extraordinary success.

MW: I’m thrilled with the success. No, we got the ball rolling, and everything else is up to this guy now, sitting in the corner. This is my manager and partner, Steve [Levinson]. But no, those guys, they’re so good and they’re on such a roll, you just wanna tune in on Sunday like everybody else. I stopped watching the dailies. I wait ’til the rough cuts come.

EI: How much longer do you think it’ll go? Is there a finite end in sight?

MW: Until those guys self-destruct. Until [Jeremy] Piven implodes.
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