Caffeinated Clint
Having essentially grown up on the tough streets of South Boston, you’d almost presuppose Mark Wahlberg could just step into the ring and start throwing the kind of punches you’d expect to see from Rubin “Hurricane” Carter. But the actor tells CLINT MORRIS no amount of street fights growing up could prepare the now 39-year-old for the role of boxer Mickey Ward in ”The Fighter”.
“I certainly got into my fair share of street fights and dust ups as a kid”, says Wahlberg, on the line from Louisiana where she’s shooting a new movie, “But training is a whole different ball game. They’re not alike at all.”
Though there’d be training involved for anyone doing a boxing flick, it’s fair to say that Wahlberg was put through the paces a lot more than what another actor playing a similar part would’ve been. You see, despite the Oscar Nominated actor’s attachment, it took four-and-a-half-years to get the movie made. During this time, Wahlberg continued to train – and not just on the weekends, or for half-an-hour a night, but consistently throughout the day.
‘’The movie just kept hitting roadblock after roadblock”, says Wahlberg, also a producer on the film, “So I was training for a few years before we even got close to the beginning of production.”
Though usually very fit and healthy (he has one of the most famous set of stone-hard abs in the business), Wahlberg and his body weren’t on speaking terms for a while there.
Explains the actor, ‘’I’d run 8 miles in the morning, eat breakfast, do about 10 rounds in the ring – I trained with some real kickboxing and boxing champs, about 15 rounds of jumping rope, then lunch, then we’d come back and do a couple of hours of cardio, then it’s back to the ring”.
The actor, who cut his teeth as a rapper (under the guise of ‘Marky Mark’) before making the transition into acting in 1993 (with a role in the forgettable telemovie ”The Substitute”), says the film would’ve suffered had he had quit training at some point in those four years.
“You can’t just stop training and then restart it later – you’ll be back at square one”, the star of such films as ”Boogie Nights”, ”The Italian Job” and ”Max Payne”, says, “So after four and a half, well, three and a half years, I felt confident enough to go in there and be believable as a boxer who could possibly win the welterweight title. And you know, had somebody said, “Hey, you’ve got to train four and a half years to make this movie,” I would have said, “Absolutely not.” But the fact that I was just continuing to do it and never wanted to stop because I figured if I stopped I would be giving up on the movie, and I never wanted to do that. So for me it was well worth putting in the work. There were times obviously when it was harder and more difficult to get out of bed, and especially while making another film and training for a film that may or may not happen. But it was certainly worth it in the end.”
”The Fighter” is a movie Wahlberg was determined to see made. The true story of a fellow Bostonian named Mickey ‘Irish’ Ward, it’s a rousing underdog tale about a young man who, against all the odds, rises up to become both his family’s savior and the unforseen winner of the Welterweight Championship.
“We were talking about how hard it was to get the movie made just before; well Mickey’s life is like that. The struggle to get The Fighter made actually mirrored [Ward’s] life in some ways – how hard is was for him to turn his life around, and how he had to hang in there and just give it his all in order to do the impossible.”
It goes without saying that that aspect of the movie, someone who was forced to turn their life around and start focusing on a goal many likely said wasn’t achievable, was what initially sparked Wahlberg’s interest in the project.
“There were more similarities than there were differences”, laughs Wahlberg, who claims to have been in trouble 20-25 times with the Boston Police as a youngster, “that’s for sure”.
Another aspect of the film that rang true for Wahlberg was the depiction of Boston women.
‘’Ya know what, if you find one that looks like Amy Adams you better hang onto her! Usually the ones like [Charlene] – the pretty Irish Catholic girls – get out of Boston pretty damn quick!”
Wahlberg is married to model Rhea Durham, the mother of his four children. Though they’re happy, the actor admits that his wife has started complaining about his post-Fighter podge.
‘’My new regimen consists of a bottle of red wine and a lot of food. And I’m enjoying myself, but my wife is like, you know, “You – you’re starting to look really bad. I’m a former supermodel, a Victoria’s Secret Model, if you want to hold on to me, you’ve gotta do something.” he laughs, “So I’m back in the gym”.
“The Fighter” opens Thursday
