Mark Wahlberg on playing a real person is pretty clear: the responsibility changes the moment an actor knows the character actually lived.
That is something Wahlberg has experienced several times during his career, and By Any Means puts him back in that position. This time, he plays Gregory Scarpa, a real-life organized crime figure whose story takes Wahlberg into considerably darker territory.
For Wahlberg, a movie based on true events automatically carries a little more weight.
Mark Wahlberg on playing a real person
This certainly is not Wahlberg’s first experience bringing somebody from real life to the screen.
He played boxer Micky Ward in The Fighter, Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell in Lone Survivor and oil rig worker Mike Williams in Deepwater Horizon.
Those performances gave him plenty of experience with true-story roles, but Mark Wahlberg talks about them as something very different from playing a completely fictional character.
There are real events behind the screenplay. There may be families, friends and other people who remember the person being portrayed.
That is why Wahlberg believes the stakes are higher.
Click on the the video to hear Mark Wahlberg talk about the responsibility that comes with playing a real person in By Any Means.
By Any Means takes Wahlberg into darker territory
That last part is especially important when it comes to Gregory Scarpa.
By Any Means gives Wahlberg the opportunity to play a complicated figure whose life existed well beyond anything created for the movie.
For an actor, that creates a different challenge.
Instead of simply deciding what makes a character interesting on screen, there is also the history attached to that person. Mark Wahlberg discusses that responsibility as something requiring both respect and sensitivity, even when the person he is portraying occupies a much darker world.
The By Any Means true story elements also make that connection to history an important part of the performance.
True stories have always carried different stakes
Mark Wahlberg on true stories is an interesting subject because so many of his memorable movies have drawn from real people and real events.
The Fighter asked him to step into Micky Ward’s life. Lone Survivor put him in the role of Marcus Luttrell. Deepwater Horizon brought the experiences of Mike Williams to the screen.
By Any Means gives him another real-life character, but not one that asks audiences to view him in quite the same way.
As Wahlberg puts it, sometimes a role requires an actor to “dig a little deeper and go a little darker.”
Mark Wahlberg reflects on the responsibility
Experience may make the process more familiar, but it apparently does not make Wahlberg treat it casually.
For him, playing somebody who actually existed means recognizing that the performance is connected to more than a screenplay.
That is why Mark Wahlberg on playing a real person ultimately comes back to responsibility.
The role may require going somewhere darker, but Wahlberg still wants to approach the real person and the events surrounding the story with the sensitivity they deserve.
By Any Means is now playing in theaters.
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