STACK #124 Feb 2016

EXTRAS

FEATURE

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MARK WAHLBERG From rap and Calvins to the Hollywood A-List.

The ‘90s “I can always see something of myself in the characters I play.” Marky Mark made a rather inauspicious movie debut in 1993 in the terrible telemovie The Substitute , a thriller penned pseudonymously by David S. Goyer ( The Dark Knight ) involving a homicidal teacher who “loves her students... to death!” Wahlberg has about 10 minutes of screen time opposite the always fantastic British actress Amanda Donohoe ( The Lair of the White Worm ). The actor dropped his rap name for his first big screen venture, the Danny DeVito comedy Renaissance Man (1994) – better known to Australian audiences as Army Intelligence . As one of the army grunts being taught proper English by DeVito’s civilian teacher, Wahlberg proved that a rapper could also act. This became even more apparent in The Basketball Diaries (1995), with Wahlberg receiving unanimous praise from critics for his performance as Mickey, the bad boy buddy of Leonardo Di Caprio’s heroin-addicted Jim Carroll. Wahlberg’s tough guy persona served him well as the psycho boyfriend of Reese Witherspoon in Fear (1996), and while that generic thriller didn’t stretch his acting ability, he delivered another solid performance as an Irish grifter in the Bill Paxton-produced Traveller (1997). It was his role as porn star Dirk Diggler in Boogie Nights (1997), Paul Thomas Anderson’s paean to the ‘70s adult film biz, that proved there was more to this boy from Boston than rap and Calvins. “It was a showstopper, and it had a good screenplay, a real story,” Wahlberg notes. He even kept Diggler’s “special gift” – an oversized prosthetic willy – as a souvenir after filming wrapped. “The movie’s special gift happens to be Mark Wahlberg, who gives a terrifically appealing performance,” wrote Janet Maslin in the New York Times . And her peers all agreed. Wahlberg followed his breakout role with the Hong Kong-style action-comedy The Big Hit (1998), which wasn’t, but has since found a cult following on home video. And deservedly so: it’s a frequently hilarious, undiscovered gem. The following year he found himself working with Fear director James Foley once again on The Corruptor , which partnered him with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon star Chow Yun Fat, as an NYPD cop embroiled in a Triad turf war.

“I did a lot of things that I regretted and I certainly paid for my mistakes.” The life of Mark Robert Michael Wahlberg is the stuff of a compelling, road-to-redemption biopic. Born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1971, the youngest of the nine Wahlberg children dropped out of high school at 14 to pursue a life of petty crime and drug addiction, which eventually led to him serving 45 days in prison following an assault conviction. But while Wahlberg’s incarceration served as a reality check, it did little to curb his bad boy behaviour, which he used to his advantage as the frontman of rap group Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch. His chiselled physique made him an instant teen heartthrob and the poster boy for Calvin Klein underwear. But despite his popularity and a No.1 album, a series of scandals – including a much publicised clash with Madonna and her entourage at an LA nightclub – ultimately ended his music career, and he consequently turned to acting. His breakout role in Boogie Nights (1997) revealed he had the talent to make it in Hollywood, and he’s now an A-lister, Oscar nominee, producer and devoted family man. To say that Mark Wahlberg has successfully turned his life around would be an understatement.

David O. Russell’s gulf war satire Three Kings (1999) is another underrated gem starring Wahlberg, although these days it’s remembered more as the movie in which star George Clooney punched out his director on the set. The ‘00s “I want people to come see my films and enjoy them, but at the end of the day you can’t control what people think.” Set in New York’s rail yards, where corporate corruption is rampant, The Yards (2000) was the first of two working class crime dramas Wahlberg made with writer-director James Gray and co-star Joaquin Phoenix. The same year he was reunited with George Clooney in the big budget adventure flick The Perfect Storm , based on the true-life account of fishing boat Andrea Gail ’s turbulent encounter with the titular weather front. Wahlberg turned down a role in Ocean’s Eleven for the chance to work with Tim Burton. Too bad it was in the director’s much maligned “reimagination” of Planet of the Apes (2001). While the film was a disaster, Wahlberg backed Burton, citing studio interference as the reason for its failure. “They didn’t have the script right,” he told MTV Movies blog. “They had a release date before he had shot a foot of film. They were pushing him and pushing him in the wrong direction. You have got to let Tim do his thing.” The actor drew on his former rap career and socialising with rockers to play a tribute band singer who gets to front the real thing in Rock Star (2001), a role inspired by Judas Priest tribute band vocalist Tim “Ripper” Owens. While he didn’t do his own singing, research included going to “as many concerts as I could”. Nice work if you can get it. The following year he starred in another terrible remake, The Truth About Charlie , Jonathan Demme’s update of the 1963 classic Charade . Wahlberg has since told the truth about The Truth About Charlie , describing it as “pretty awful” and his “worst role ever”. Another year, another remake of a classic film, albeit this time a more successful one. The Italian Job (2003) saw Wahlberg in the role made famous by Michael Caine – master thief Charlie Croker, who orchestrates a daring heist involving Mini-Coopers.

Marky Mark and his Funky Bunch

FEBRUARY 2015 JB HI-FI www.jbhifi.com.au

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