Mark Wahlberg once admitted that he completely lost his s**t after an accident on a movie set. Accidents on movie sets are not uncommon, and while some deal with it very calmly, for others, it takes a little time to process that. The main reason behind that is of course the damage it can end up causing to your body, and your entire career as an extension.
Although it is rare, there have been reports of actors getting severely injured while shooting high-intensity combats or stunts. However, out of all these options, the most accident-prone shoot would obviously be a war-ravaged area. Even without performing a direct stunt, the chances of getting injured while just walking around are huge.
And as war movies require the portrayal of that terrible reality, the chances of accidents increased tenfolds. This is exactly what happened with Mark Wahlberg during the shooting of his $154 million movie Lone Survivor. And although he did come out of it unharmed, the same could not be said for the props and the set after he finished his rampage due to the accident.
Mark Wahlberg lost his temper on the Lone Survivor set
Mark Wahlberg explained during an interview with Collider that during the shoot of his 2013 war movie Lone Survivor, he almost flew off the rails with anger. The movie was based on the memoir by former Navy Seal Marcus Luttrell. In that, Luttrell recalled his days in Afghanistan during the war with his teammates.
Peter Berg took the opportunity to relay the story to the world through the big screen. However, with war movies comes the responsibility to portray the utter despair people surviving the battle go through.
Something Berg did magnificently, but it did not turn out as well for Wahlberg. During a specific scene, they needed to shoot a mortar going off in the face of Mark Wahlberg who was playing Luttrell’s character. But after two retakes, as Berg was not getting the exact sequence he was looking for, he told the staff controlling the explosions to set it off just before Wahlberg could get out of the way. Wahlberg explained,
“There [was] a mortar that was supposed to go in three…two…one and I move out of the way and after two takes, Pete told the guy – unbeknownst to me – fire it on two, so I couldn’t get out of the way and it exploded in my face.”
And The Departed actor was absolutely not happy about it. This is quite understandable as this could have led to major injuries for him. As a result, he completely lost it. Recalling the experience he noted,
“It was the first time I ever lost my cool on set and broke things and threw things and, you know, profanity-laced rant and Pete said it was my fault and I said, ‘Well, I’ll knock you out, too.'”
However, he eventually calmed down after taking a little time to control his emotions in his trailer. He explained that during this whole time Peter Berg was waiting outside his trailer and after calming down a little, he let the director in. He added,
“He apologized and I explained to him why I’m hyper-sensitive about my eyes because I had a bad accident before and he said, ‘Well, just go home and relax.’”
However, finally, in control of his emotions, he thought better of it and went on to apologize to everyone on the set for his outrage.
Mark Wahlberg claimed that Lone Survivor made him a better man
Although there was a big bump on the road of shooting the movie, Mark Wahlberg also admitted that the whole experience made him a better man. What really helped was Marcus Luttrell’s steady presence throughout the shooting process. He noted,
“I had the good fortune of meeting the guy I was playing and spending time with him, having him kind of be there throughout the entire process and helping me with anything that I wanted or needed.”
This seemed to have gone a long way to help him connect to the character and the very real story of what went down during those times. It should also be mentioned that Mark Wahlberg’s father Donald Edmond Wahlberg Sr. was an army veteran who served during the Korean War.
As a result, this connection with Luttrell combined with his personal experience learning about war through his father seemed to have finally made him understand what the movie really is about.
As he said he initially went into the movie thinking how this would impact his career as an actor and not caring too much about what and whom he will portray. He explained that after he read the story he finally understood the depth of the story and this changed his perspective completely.
He explained that it was never about him again, but about the people who went through the experience and the ones who could relate to it after that.
This also grew his desire to meet Marcus Luttrell, who he claims is a very special individual. “I wanted to know him and see the kind of man that he is. I’m certainly inspired to be a better man because of him,” he added.
As a result, although he did make a mistake out of anger during the shooting, the movie certainly turned out to be one of the biggest learning curves in his life.
Source: Showbiz CheatSheet
