Mark Wahlberg: ‘It’s easier to stay in shape than it is to get in shape’
Mark Wahlberg is promoting his film with Tom Holland, Uncharted. My son wants to go see it. I haven’t decided if I’m going to make his dad take him or if I’ll join them. It looks good, but I rarely make an effort for Mark’s movies. I can’t figure out if Tom negates that or not. Anyway, Mark plays some death-defying video-game character come to life. That’s not the plot, I mean Uncharted is a popular video game and they’ve made one of the more successful versions into a film. So obviously Mark and Tom do crazy stunts and action sequences and have to be in incredible shape. Mark was talking to the Australian radio show Kylie & Jacki O recently, about his various weight gains and losses. Last year Mark put on 30 pounds for the biopic Father Stu. Mark said that little journey taught him that, “it’s easier to stay in shape than it is to get in shape,” citing his age as the main culprit for struggling to shed the weight.
Mark Wahlberg isn’t a fan of making body transformations for movies.
The 50-year-old actor appeared on Australian radio show Kyle & Jackie Owhere he opened up about his “difficult” experience gaining weight for his role as a boxer-turned-priest in the upcoming film, Father Stu.
When hosts Kyle Sandilands and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson asked Wahlberg whether it was easier to lose weight or gain weight for a role, he admitted, “I would say it’s easier to stay in shape than it is to get in shape.”
“I put on 30 pounds… that was really difficult,” he explained, reflecting on his physical preparations for Father Stu. “I’m not getting younger.”
I’d agree with Mark’s assessment, even if he side-stepped the question. He was b*tching about how hard it was to put on the weight so maybe that why he didn’t want to answer directly. But I find that I can maintain easier than I can lose. I’ve been losing and finding the same four pounds for about five months now. I know that’s not the kind of weight they’re talking about in the article, but I think most people understand losing 30 pounds is hard work – at any age. I’m kind of over people making these huge body transformations anyway. If a character gains weight during the course of a movie, I’d see that as the one appropriate call for padding. And if an actor really felt it was truly necessary to gain the weight for the character’s sake, they wouldn’t need to talk about it so much.
Plus, significant weight loss and gain is almost always done as award bait, which is why Mark did it for Father Stu. The trailer is out now. One piece of information that’s conspicuously absent until now is that this ‘truly inspirational’ film costars Mel Gibson. A film about redemption starring a couple of racists? I think I’m busy that night, sorry.
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