Madonna Once Nearly Cost Mark Wahlberg His Breakthrough Role Earlier in His Career
As with most actors, all it took was one big breakthrough role to put Mark Wahlberg on the path to superstardom. But that breakthrough role nearly slipped through his fingers after a physical altercation Wahlberg had with Madonna’s people. Having gotten wind of this, Madonna, who was a much bigger star than Wahlberg, nearly cost the actor one of the most important roles in his career.
How Mark Wahlberg’s upbringing shaped his past behavior
Today, Mark Wahlberg is a far cry away from the attitudinal young adult he once was. Many are aware of the star’s dark and controversial past. But as is the case with most, Wahlberg asserted that he was a product of his environment.
“When I walked out my door — violence is also all that was there,” Wahlberg told The Guardian about his upbringing.
The actor also added that he was influenced by those around him.
“I always in trouble, and I was kind of little. In the circumstances where I was being preyed upon, at times, I had to protect and defend myself. It’s not an easy thing to navigate as a teenage kid who’s 5’2, 120 pounds, with grown men.”
But Wahlberg acknowledged the mistakes he’s made, which has helped him improve as a person.
“I took it upon myself to own up to my mistakes and go against the grain and not be a part of the gang anymore — to say that I was going to go and do my own thing,” he said. “Which made it 10 times more difficult to walk from my home to the train station, to go to school, to go to work.”
Mark Wahlberg once claimed Madonna nearly cost him his breakthrough role
It appeared on the surface that some of Wahlberg’s habits from his earlier days followed him to Hollywood. In the early 90s, Wahlberg was just coming off of his rap career. He was transitioning out his Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch hip-hop group and pursuing a movie career. But on the cusp of getting his breakthrough role in 1994’s Renaissance Man, Wahlberg ran into some trouble. The Uncharted star got into an altercation with people who were very well connected with an iconic megastar. But Wahlberg was adamant that he didn’t start the conflict.
“I almost didn’t get the part,” Wahlberg said in an interview with Shortlist. “I got into a fight at a party in LA with three guys and broke a guy’s nose. It was a few of Madonna’s people, so she called the f****** cops on me. Told everybody this bulls*** story that I was doing s*** that I wasn’t.”
Fortunately for Wahlberg, the film’s producer continued to support him.
“Penny [Marshall, the producer] called me saying, ‘What the f*** did you do?’, but then she was like, ‘F*** that, I’m giving you the part anyway,’” he revealed. “After that experience, I was on set every day. I wanted to know who was who and what they were doing. I became fascinated by it.”
Mark Wahlberg’s daughter didn’t like hearing about her father’s past
Although many of Wahlberg’s past exploits may be old news, that’s not the case for his daughter. The Transformers actor opened up to Extra about his daughter just now discovering the wilder aspects of his history. And it’s a discovery she once had trouble reconciling with.
“My daughter’s starting to hear rumblings of what I did in the past… she doesn’t like it,” Wahlberg told Extra (via Yahoo) “I got to do my thing for a long time and then I was fortunate enough to meet the woman I was going to spend the rest of my life with, and we have four beautiful children.”
