Mark Wahlberg has worked in various movies that require his comedic side, his serious side, and a side that loves action. However, some movies also require him to touch his darker side. A lot of actors have to interact with much darker themes for the sake of some movies. While method acting has its ups and downs, it is not the best when dealing with heavier themes.
If the outcome of method acting is far from kind to actors, it is no doubt that the themes affect other actors as well. Such is the case of Wahlberg, who was left to deal with some serious emotions he was not ready for while filming The Lovely Bones. The premise of the movie was so interesting yet so dark that the actor was pushed into emotional turmoil.
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Mark Wahlberg Was Not Okay After Filming The Lovely Bones
The Lovely Bones saw Mark Wahlberg playing Jack Salmon, who was the father of the protagonist as played by Saoirse Ronan. The movie revolved around his daughter, Susie Salmon’s death as she witnessed everybody deal with her passing individually. The turmoil that Wahlberg had to put himself through was not something he looked forward to. Although he gave his best for the role, what it took from him was a lot in itself.
“I’ve put myself through emotional torture making this movie. It’s taken me to unimaginably dark places. The Lovely Bones is a chilling story, especially if you’re a parent,” the actor added. “The murder of a child is the very last thing any mother or father ever wants to think about. I read about the terrible things that people do to children and I know that if anyone like them came near my kids, I’d kill them.”
In fact, he was far from happy when filming the movie because of the emotions it required him to portray. The loss of a child is already gruesome and to witness the grave doings that some people choose to do to children put the actor in a troublesome place. He was pushed to a corner in his own mind where things were not rainbows and butterflies but the exact opposite.
Ryan Gosling Was Meant To Play Jack Salmon
The role of Jack Salmon in The Lovely Bones was first offered to Ryan Gosling who had even accepted it. However, he had known from the very beginning that he was not right for the role. He kept on insisting the same but the producer, Fran Walsh, was adamant about having him play the father.
“Ryan came to us two or three times and said, ‘I’m not the right person for this role. I’m too young,’” Fran Walsh added. “And we said, ‘No, no, no. We can age you up. We can thin your hair.’ We were very keen.”
He thought himself to be too young and unable to bring what the movie required from him. Moreover, when he was standing next to the cast, he was visibly uncomfortable. That was when the producers started to understand where the actor was coming from and chose to work with what he wanted, replacing Gosling with Mark Wahlberg.
Source: Irish Central
