Mark Wahlberg on filming in Colombia
Published Aug 5, 2018 04:07 pm
LOS ANGELES – Mark Wahlberg, 47, recently met with us to talk about his latest action thriller film, “Mile 22,” which was helmed by Peter Berg and also stars John Malkovich, Lauren Cohan, Iko Uwais, and Ronda Rousey.
Mark Wahlberg (Photo courtesy of Janet R. Nepales/HFPA)
Mark plays CIA agent James Silva who is investigating the murder of three of his co-workers. Principal photography of the film was shot in Atlanta, Georgia and then in Bogota, Colombia.
“I’d never been to Colombia so I didn’t know what to expect,” he revealed. “You think Colombia and you think about… at least with me the references that I have are not so friendly and welcoming, but the President, all of his people, everybody made us feel so comfortable. Obviously I would encourage any production to go down there. They were much more accommodating than a lot of cities in America would be.
“But I think us driving around, speeding around, sticking machine guns out the window, normally people would be a little nervous, but people were just looking, it was fine. Then you had military on the corner and it was hard to differentiate who was with the movie and who wasn’t. But (it was) very cool. I don’t really like going anywhere because it’s taking me away from my family, so that three weeks without being able to go home on the weekend was the toughest part about it. But I would encourage everybody to go down there and shoot. It’s a really beautiful country and the people are fantastic.”
On handling money
Also a businessman and a producer, we asked what money means to him, how he spends it, and if his wife puts a cap on it or not.
“No she doesn’t put a cap on it,” he disclosed. “The most important thing to understand is, and I think everybody knows this, you can’t take it with you so it’s what you do with it while you’re here. And I give my money to where I can be of help and make contributions that will be helpful and impactful. I have a lot of friends who love the phrase, there’s no luggage rack on a hearse so to be able to be successful and be in businesses that I really love and I am passionate about and inspired by, that’s fantastic.
“I have my indulgences, shoes and watches and things like that. But other than that I’m just trying now to create more opportunity, build a bigger business. Every time we open a restaurant, we have 27 open now and have another 10 opening this year. I’m funding a lot of those restaurants myself. So putting money into the business and try, build, grow and leave a business for my children to hopefully be passionate about and want to take on and pass down a few generations.”
On family
A father of four, Mark admitted that his wife Rhea Durham wanted another one.
“She was adamant about having another one. I was doing everything in my power to prevent that from happening. Because it wasn’t until we had a teenager that would literally look at you and curse at you that she said, thank god you held out on me for so long with the fifth. Because they grow up, things get more complicated.”
He explained, “I’m late today for a reason. I’ve got four kids who want to go in different directions, tons of stuff going on, I’ve got a teenage daughter who I’ve got to keep an eye on. I don’t follow her or have a private investigator but I’m trying to do everything I can to be on top of it and gauge what’s going on. And it’s not easy. I hear I hate you a lot more than I hear I love you. But it’s just part of it. And everybody I talk to they said they all go through it and it happens and they come out the other side and it’s better after but… still waiting. I have a friend who was just at my house, he has seven kids and his wife says he wants two more. He said he’ll take as many as he can get.”
So are his kids – Grace Margaret, Ella Rae, Brendan Joseph and Michael – following in his footsteps?
“My sons want to play Fortnite; my daughter just wants to get out of the house; she thinks I’m trying to control her every move, which I am,” he narrated. “If she wants to hang out with her five friends and they want to come over to the house, I can just sit in the pool house and watch them, and then that’s cool. I’d rather have them there than be out.
“But my youngest daughter, she’s really into horses. She’s a counsellor in training at the horse camp. She goes to gymnastics camp. She’s up at six dressed, ready to go. She has to leave at 9 o’clock. She’s motivated, inspired, focused, so that’s been my pride and joy. And her work ethic, she is a horse owner, she is going to clean and shovel horse poop. She’s like, I’ve got to make the food myself dad. She’s learning responsibility. She’s a caretaker, all those things. People say, girls get into horses; they don’t think about boys until they’re 20. A good thing.”
Mark Wahlberg (Photo courtesy of Janet R. Nepales/HFPA)
Mark plays CIA agent James Silva who is investigating the murder of three of his co-workers. Principal photography of the film was shot in Atlanta, Georgia and then in Bogota, Colombia.
“I’d never been to Colombia so I didn’t know what to expect,” he revealed. “You think Colombia and you think about… at least with me the references that I have are not so friendly and welcoming, but the President, all of his people, everybody made us feel so comfortable. Obviously I would encourage any production to go down there. They were much more accommodating than a lot of cities in America would be.
“But I think us driving around, speeding around, sticking machine guns out the window, normally people would be a little nervous, but people were just looking, it was fine. Then you had military on the corner and it was hard to differentiate who was with the movie and who wasn’t. But (it was) very cool. I don’t really like going anywhere because it’s taking me away from my family, so that three weeks without being able to go home on the weekend was the toughest part about it. But I would encourage everybody to go down there and shoot. It’s a really beautiful country and the people are fantastic.”
On handling money
Also a businessman and a producer, we asked what money means to him, how he spends it, and if his wife puts a cap on it or not.
“No she doesn’t put a cap on it,” he disclosed. “The most important thing to understand is, and I think everybody knows this, you can’t take it with you so it’s what you do with it while you’re here. And I give my money to where I can be of help and make contributions that will be helpful and impactful. I have a lot of friends who love the phrase, there’s no luggage rack on a hearse so to be able to be successful and be in businesses that I really love and I am passionate about and inspired by, that’s fantastic.
“I have my indulgences, shoes and watches and things like that. But other than that I’m just trying now to create more opportunity, build a bigger business. Every time we open a restaurant, we have 27 open now and have another 10 opening this year. I’m funding a lot of those restaurants myself. So putting money into the business and try, build, grow and leave a business for my children to hopefully be passionate about and want to take on and pass down a few generations.”
On family
A father of four, Mark admitted that his wife Rhea Durham wanted another one.
“She was adamant about having another one. I was doing everything in my power to prevent that from happening. Because it wasn’t until we had a teenager that would literally look at you and curse at you that she said, thank god you held out on me for so long with the fifth. Because they grow up, things get more complicated.”
He explained, “I’m late today for a reason. I’ve got four kids who want to go in different directions, tons of stuff going on, I’ve got a teenage daughter who I’ve got to keep an eye on. I don’t follow her or have a private investigator but I’m trying to do everything I can to be on top of it and gauge what’s going on. And it’s not easy. I hear I hate you a lot more than I hear I love you. But it’s just part of it. And everybody I talk to they said they all go through it and it happens and they come out the other side and it’s better after but… still waiting. I have a friend who was just at my house, he has seven kids and his wife says he wants two more. He said he’ll take as many as he can get.”
So are his kids – Grace Margaret, Ella Rae, Brendan Joseph and Michael – following in his footsteps?
“My sons want to play Fortnite; my daughter just wants to get out of the house; she thinks I’m trying to control her every move, which I am,” he narrated. “If she wants to hang out with her five friends and they want to come over to the house, I can just sit in the pool house and watch them, and then that’s cool. I’d rather have them there than be out.
“But my youngest daughter, she’s really into horses. She’s a counsellor in training at the horse camp. She goes to gymnastics camp. She’s up at six dressed, ready to go. She has to leave at 9 o’clock. She’s motivated, inspired, focused, so that’s been my pride and joy. And her work ethic, she is a horse owner, she is going to clean and shovel horse poop. She’s like, I’ve got to make the food myself dad. She’s learning responsibility. She’s a caretaker, all those things. People say, girls get into horses; they don’t think about boys until they’re 20. A good thing.”