Mark Wahlberg, the actor known for movies like Ted and Uncharted has surprisingly gone through three weeks of brutal Navy SEAL training for the preparation of one of his movies. Talking about the 2013 action movie Lone Survivor, Wahlberg had quite the story to tell for his role as Marcus Luttrell.
Alongside the Father Stu actor, Ben Foster, Taylor Kitsch, and, Emile Hirsch all went through a physically rigorous training of three weeks to prepare for their respective roles. Based on the real-life story of Marcus Luttrell, the fighter organized this special training for Wahlberg and his fellow co-stars to help them convince the audience.
When Mark Wahlberg Went Through A Navy SEAL Training
Back in 2013, the real-life story of Marcus Luttrell was adapted into a movie starring Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Ben Foster, and Alexander Ludwig. Being a team of lone survivors in the Hindu Kush region of Afghanistan, the story depicts the team fighting valiantly and trying to emerge alive from the hellscape where they have found themselves in.
Although the movie was nightmarish to shoot due to the intense amount of physical activities that the actors had to do, the pre-production of the movie was not a light matter either. As per reports, Wahlberg had to undergo actual Navy SEAL training in order to have the convincibility of an actual Navy SEAL fighting for his life.
Marcus Luttrell organized a three-week boot camp in New Mexico where Mark Wahlberg, along with Kitsch, Hirsch, and Foster were given military training by elite military personnel in weapons, military communications, and tactics. In an interview, here’s what the director of the movie Peter Berg had to say about training his actors.
“They were very curious. They learned as best as they could in two months how to operate like Navy SEALs, how to use the weapons, use of the communications equipment, how to move, how to fight. They were all in extraordinary shape. They were thrilled to be able to spend that kind of time with a bunch of SEALs in that kind of environment.”
This wasn’t all, since Berg shared that not only physicality was achieved through this rigorous training, the bond of blood between the actors was shared by being humble with the cast and crew of Lone Survivor.
Mark Wahlberg Hiked For Five Miles Every Day While Shooting
The bond of blood between military brothers was something that had to be seen by the people in Love Survivor. For originality, Peter Berg stated that he tore off the trapping of the traditions of a celebrity and completed the shooting of the movie together as a team.
“I think by removing the trapping of traditional celebrity. These guys had to hike five miles every day to the area where they were shooting. They carried equipment with the crew. Lunch was a sandwich put in your back pocket,”
He continued,
“There were no trailers. If you needed to go to the bathroom, you walked 30 feet into the woods and took care of your business. When rain came, we got wet. When hail fell, we got slammed. When lightning struck, we just hoped it didn’t hit us.”
In the end, it seems that Berg’s efforts paid off as Lone Survivor received rave ratings of 7.5/10 on IMDB and 75% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Lone Survivor is available to stream on Max (formerly HBO Max).
Source: MTV
