Mark Wahlberg is all about making family-friendly movies at the moment.
The veteran actor recently opened up to Yahoo Entertainment about the types of projects he looks for as he embraces getting older, similar to some of his latest roles in The Family Plan, Uncharted and Arthur the King.
“You know, I do enjoy doing things that the whole entire family can see,” Wahlberg said. “Look, I’m 52 years old now. I’m a dad of four. I’ve got a kid in college. I like playing age-appropriate roles. I think a lot of people don’t embrace that and audiences are like — this doesn’t seem real.” The Ted actor shares four children with his wife, Rhea Durham.
Having been in the industry for decades following his breakout role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1997 movie Boogie Nights, Wahlberg said he now feels audiences want to see “the guy and the gal being in the same age bracket.”
“There’s many different things that I think audiences frown upon and I want to do things that are believable and realistic,” he explained. “Listen, if the right script comes, I don’t rule anything out.” But he noted that he wants the projects he makes to be “meaningful.”
And his upcoming film, Arthur the King, in which he stars and produces, does just that. The wholesome adventure film, hitting theaters March 15, follows endurance racer Mikael Lindnord (Wahlberg) who adopts a stray dog named Arthur to join him in an epic race.
Though the actor has dozens of films under his belt, Wahlberg also admitted to Cigar Aficionado last year that he’s honestly not sure how much longer he’ll be standing in front of cameras.
“Well, I’m certainly working harder now than ever. Certain businesses, you kind of build them, pass them on or you exit. Hopefully my kids, we’ll see what their interests are, but I don’t think that I’ll be acting that much longer at the pace I am now,” he said at the time. “That’s for sure. Because that’s the most difficult thing.”
