Mark Wahlberg turned to producing in a bid to ensure he was in the driver’s seat of his career.
The Oscar-nominated star has had a varied career, starting out in the original line-up of boyband New Kids on the Block with older brother Donnie, before quitting to start Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch. He then had a stint as a model, finally settling on a career in Hollywood.
As well as his acting credits, Mark has increasingly taken on more producing work over the last decade, and he explains to Men’s Health the difference between the two is, “waiting round for miracles to happen and putting your ass in the driver’s seat.”
His foray into producing came after a string of questionable blockbusters left him yearning to create projects he actually wanted to watch himself. His first job as an executive producer came courtesy of Entourage, where he also stars as a version of himself.
“My thing is to make sure I don’t cut any corners and that I’m constantly working as hard as I can and giving myself the best chance for success at everything that I do,” he said of his approach to work. “Then if things don’t work out, I don’t have to feel bad.”
One way the 45-year-old doesn’t cut corners is to thoroughly research his film work. His latest movie, Deepwater Horizon, is about the real life tragedy that happened on an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico. Mark plays survivor Mike Williams, and the actor had Mike on set to advise him during the shoot.
“It was good to talk to a lot of survivors and certainly the families of the guys who didn’t get off the rig. We wanted to focus on that,” he shared.
