Mark Wahlberg has said that starring in Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1997 ensemble drama movie Boogie Nights was “the moment he became a real actor.” We regret to inform you that Boogie Nights is 25 years old this year, whereas the events depicted in the movie are from twenty years before that – in 1977.
Speaking to Jake’s Takes, Wahlberg said of his experience working on Boogie Nights; “I was no longer scared to try stuff, to look ridiculous, to be vulnerable – to just being fearless. I was like, no pun intended ‘I’ve gotta go for it and let it all hang out’ and I knew that I was in an environment where I was safe. I really stopped caring about what other people thought and I really wanted to become a real actor and that was the moment.”
He continues; “It’s funny because with Paul Thomas Anderson and myself and the rest of that amazing cast, we were really kind of left on our own. It wasn’t studios standing over us controlling what what we were doing. Paul was really doing his thing and we were all there to service his vision. It was such a liberating experience.”
After an early ’90s music career as Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, Wahlberg broke into movie acting roles. He also shouts out director Penny Marshall in the interview, who cast him in Renaissance Man in 1994. Wahlberg would then go onto appear in The Basketball Diaries with Leonardo DiCaprio in 1995, but Boogie Nights was his first starring role.
Wahlberg has also starred in Three Kings, The Perfect Storm, The Departed, and The Fighter. More recently, he has starred in movies based on a true story – Deepwater Horizon and Patriots Day. He is currently promoting Uncharted, in which as he stars as Sully to Tom Holland’s Nathan Drake.
Paul Thomas Anderson is an Oscar hopeful this year with another ’70s set film – Licorice Pizza. He was just nominated for Best Director at the BAFTAs and star Alana Haim was nominated for Best Actress. Pizza is the third time Anderson has visited the 1970s, after Boogie Nights and Inherent Vice starring Joaquin Phoenix.
Find out whether Boogie Nights made our list of best ’90s movies.
News
Is Nicolas Cage underneath all that fur? The beard hid a legend and was unrecognizable at the movie premiere.
Laurence Fishburne and Nicolas Cage (Credit: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images) Is that Nicolas Cage underneath all that fur? Apparently it was, as the idiosyncratic screen legend attended to the Beverly Hills premiere of his new movie Running With The Devil. Not only…
Weston Cage, Son of Nicolas Cage, Under Police Investigation for Alleged Attack on Mother
Weston is Nicolas’ oldest child and his only with Christina Fulton From L: Nicolas Cage, Weston Cage and Christina Fulton. PHOTO: JOHN SHEARER/WIREIMAGE; GABRIEL OLSEN/FILMMAGIC; ROBIN L MARSHALL/GETTY Weston Coppola Cage is reportedly a suspect in a battery case involving his mother, Christina…
Nicolas Cage, FKA Twigs & Noah Jupe in ‘The Carpenter’s Son’ – Cannes Hot Project
Nicolas Cage, FKA twigs, Noah Jupe, Souheila YacoubGetty Images, Pip Nicolas Cage, FKA twigs, Noah Jupe and Souheila Yacoub are set to star in Egyptian-American director Lotfy Nathan’s The Carpenter’s Son exploring the rarely told story of the childhood of Jesus with a horror take. Paris-based…
Nicolas Cage Takes on Unique Role in Horror Film: Jesus’ Childhood Story in Production
Nicolas Cage Horror Movie Involving Jesus’ Childhood Being Produced US actor Nicolas Cage attends the premiere of “Renfield” in New York City on March 28, 2023. (Photo … [+] AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES A horror movie set amid Jesus’ childhood starring…
Octavia Spencer and Isabela Moner Join Mark Wahlberg’s ‘Instant Family
Octavia Spencer, Isabela Moner, Tig Notaro, Iliza Shlesinger, and Tom Segura have joined Mark Wahlberg and Rose Byrne in the Paramount comedy “Instant Family.” Wahlberg and Byrne will play a couple who decides to start a family and adopt through the foster-care…
Chef Duran Reveals: What Mark Wahlberg Is Eating to Gain 30lbs in 6 Weeks for ‘Father Stu
Earlier this week, actor Mark Wahlberg caught headlines around the internet after posting an Instagram update on the body transformation he’s undergoing to play a boxer-turned-priest in Father Stu. Instead of the usual, pre-blockbuster shred that most Hollywood types grind through before a feature…
End of content
No more pages to load