Mark Wahlberg is speaking up about why he hasn’t yet played a superhero character in any of the major superhero movie franchises currently ruling the box office. After all, Mark Wahlberg’s name is synonymous with action movie glory, as the actor has made a career out of playing badass tough guys onscreen. And yet, out of the dozens of superhero roles that he’s either been fan-casted for or actually approached to play, Wahlberg has never felt the draw to play one. So why not?ย
While it’s true that Mark Wahlberg hasn’t yet played a comic book superhero on the movie screen, fans have been (somewhat) excited about the fact that Wahlberg is finally breaking the barrier on a different kind of genre property: gaming. Wahlberg’s latest film is Uncharted, an adaptation of the hit game series (which itself was inspired by action-adventure movies). While doing an interview for Uncharted, Mark Wahlberg explained why suiting up as a superhero hasn’t appealed to him:ย
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I like them enough, I’m not one of those purists who is like ‘Oh this is not cinema.’ I think the audiences decide and obviously they [superhero movies] have been wildly successful, Wahlberg tells Cine Pop. “It’s just that for me, personally, as an actor, I would have a really hard time walking out of my trailer with a cape on, and a spandex suit.
On the one hand, it’s easy to understand Mark Wahlberg’s personal preferences as an actor. After all, plenty of other superhero franchise actors have admitted that all the spandex costumes, motion-capture suits, green screens and harness stunts can feel like less-than-serious work. On the other hand, we all know some of the looks Mark Wahlberg has walked out of his trailer with (see: Boogie Nights), so how hard would superheroes be? The fact that Wahlberg throws that shade is arguably hilarious while he’s still sporting that ’70s mustache for his Uncharted character Sully.ย
More curious is Wahlberg’s admittance about the one sort-of-superhero character he’s actually passionate about:ย
“But that being said, I was working really hard to bring The $6 Million-Dollar man to the screen, which is based on a TV series. And it was based on a lot of wish-fulfillment and what this character could do, based on what they did to him. But it was grounded in reality and you felt like it would be much more believable as being realistic, to me, to be able to play that part, and feel like ‘I could do this,’ in a way that didn’t feel silly.”
Still, never say never about seeing Mark Wahlberg in a DC and/or Marvel movie, because the actor is keeping his options open:ย
“But you never know: maybe the right part will come along! We’ll see.”
Uncharted will be in theaters on February 18th.ย