Throughout Mark Wahlberg’s career, he has built a huge fan base largely because he has the ability to come across as a legitimate tough guy on the big screen. Amazingly enough, a lot of Wahlberg’s fans have no idea that Mark’s intimidating exterior wasn’t an act at one point. After all, Wahlberg has a violent history that even resulted in him serving time.
Of course, it has been many, many years since Mark Wahlberg found himself behind bars but it seems clear that he hasn’t gone completely Hollywood. After all, Wahlberg has a documented history of saying things that a lot of major movie stars wouldn’t even consider uttering. For example, Wahlberg once called out Tom Cruise even though he is one of the most powerful people in the movie industry and he reportedly clashed with Martin Scorsese in the past.
On top of reports about Mark Wahlberg's contentious relationships with the aforementioned Hollywood heavyweights, it has been revealed that he had issues with another megastar. In fact, Wahlberg had a problem with one of the biggest movie stars of the modern era which nearly ruined his acting career.
A Huge Deal
When people talk about the biggest movie stars in the world today, there are certain names that almost always get brought up first. For example, it is hard to think of the modern movie landscape without envisioning people like Tom Cruise, Scarlett Johansson, Dwayne Johnson, Angelina Jolie, Denzel Washington, or Tom Hanks.
Even though Mark Wahlberg sometimes can be an afterthought in the discussion of the biggest movie stars around, that doesn’t mean that he hasn’t accomplished an awful lot. After all, Wahlberg has headlined a long list of movies that have gone on to be massive hits. For example, Wahlberg starred in box office blockbusters like the Transformers series, The Perfect Storm, Ted, and Daddy’s Home.
A New Career
Since Mark Wahlberg has been a movie star for more than 25 years as of this writing, a lot of people don’t know what led to him becoming famous in the first place. Initially introduced to the world as a rapper, Wahlberg enjoyed a great deal of success when he released the hit song “Good Vibrations” under his alter ego, Marky Mark.
Even though “Good Vibrations” was a huge hit, it would be a huge stretch to claim that the song led to the masses taking Mark Wahlberg seriously as a musical artist. Worse yet, Wahlberg never enjoyed that kind of success again during his music career. Of course, that worked out in the end as it allowed Wahlberg to begin focusing on his new passion, acting.
Almost Over Before It Began
As anyone who follows the entertainment business will already know, a lot of musicians turned actors turn out to be terrible at their new craft. As a result, when Mark Wahlberg decided to become an actor, it would have made sense if most major movie stars didn’t want to share the screen with him. However, as it turns out, a Hollywood megastar almost torpedoed Wahlberg’s acting plans for reasons that had nothing to do with his previous music career.
After Mark Wahlberg landed a small role in a forgotten film named Renaissance Man, he went on to play a supporting character in the indie drama The Basketball Diaries. While The Basketball Diaries received mixed reviews, Wahlberg’s performance in the film received enough praise to convince the Hollywood bigwigs to take him seriously as an actor.
As it turns out, Mark Wahlberg told The Hollywood Reporter that The Basketball Diaries’ star Leonardo DiCaprio almost ensured his career didn’t get off the ground. "Leonardo was like, 'Over my dead f***ing body. Marky Mark's not going to be in this f***ing movie.'” From there, Wahlberg went on to explain that DiCaprio had a problem with him for personal reasons. "I didn't even realize it, [but] I was a bit of a d*** to him at a charity basketball game. So he was like, 'This f***ing a****** is not going to be in this movie.'"
After Leonardo DiCaprio tried to torpedo Mark Wahlberg’s The Basketball Diaries casting, he was convinced to read lines with the former rapper. Even though the two performers were cordial during that meeting and they were so good together that Wahlberg was cast, their issues weren’t easy to overcome. When Wahlberg spoke at UCLA in 2018, he explained that he and DiCaprio “ had to really learn how to respect each other” and through that process, they developed “a bond”.
After Mark Wahlberg’s The Basketball Diaries performance allowed him to stand out, he went on to land a role in the almost universally acclaimed film Boogie Nights. In an amusing twist, Leonardo DiCaprio later revealed he turned down Boogie Nights before Wahlberg signed on and he loved the movie so much that he regrets that decision.
