We recently spoke to tough guy actor Mark Wahlberg, an Oscar-nominated thespian I might add, about his new film Max Payne (he fractured his thumb doing a stunt), and also about ‘The Happening’ (what happened? is right).
Finally, we managed to get his thoughts on a potential comeback by the defunct “Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch”. Will he do it again? Click the video below.
This interview sat dead on this page for years. The original Flash video player died when the format did, and the file lived on an FTP server nobody could reach. We pulled the original tape off a 2013 backup drive, restored it to 1080p, and put it back where it belongs.
Eighteen years later, Wahlberg kept his word. No Marky Mark reunion ever happened. The New Kids on the Block are still touring; the Funky Bunch stayed retired. What the interview holds now is the detail he gave on camera: he introduced New Kids on the Block at their first concert, a talent show at the Lee School in Roxbury, where Maurice Starr sent him out to freestyle before the group went on. He also addressed Donnie’s claim that he bullied the New Kids on their own tour, and apologized for it on the record.
One more thing worth re-reading in 2026: when Wahlberg explains why The Happening cast worked, the first name out of his mouth is John Leguizamo. A Colombian-Puerto Rican actor from Queens was the credibility anchor in an M. Night Shyamalan studio thriller, and the lead said so out loud in 2008. The full conversation is below, word for word.
Full Transcript: Mark Wahlberg with Jack Rico (October 2008)
JACK RICO: What happened to your hand?
MARK WAHLBERG: May Payne.
JACK: Max Payne! Oh, dude, did you finish that already?
MARK: Yeah. Done.. So just waiting till Friday and then I get to go home and have my life back.
JACK: I used to play the video game. I used to play the video game all the time. The first part, the second part, I was like, are they ever going to make this into a film?
MARK: Well, it’s like a film anyway. It has such an elaborate story.
JACK: That’s the thing. I think the story writing, see how they’re getting stuff from comic books, video games have some awesome storylines.
MARK: Well, they wanted to make it for a long time, and then The Matrix came and kind of stole bullet time from the game. So they wanted to wait until the technology advanced, and now we didn’t use any CGI, really. Aside from a couple of explosions and rooftops in the middle of the city, we shot it all on film. It’s all on film, the action. But were you a fan of the video game?
JACK: I was a fan. I got scared playing the video game.
MARK: See, I didn’t know the video game until I read the script, and then of course, knowing that it was based on the game, I had to see what it was all about and the origin of it. And then my assistant became addicted to it and he played it the whole time we shot the action. He had to stop when we were done with the movie.
JACK: Did you feel like you were Max Payne?
MARK: Oh, definitely. You know what, I’m that guy, dude. Definitely. And I know we had two missions to accomplish. One, satisfy the die-hard gamer and the fan of the game, and broaden the audience. And I think we did both.
JACK: That’s hot, bro. Well, people don’t understand. People are like, oh, you did a video game character? This is all emotion. You don’t understand. That game, this guy is a happy guy, and then all of it is stripped from him, and so he goes nuts.
MARK: Absolutely. And it’s by far one of the most layered performances. Certainly when I got to play an aggressive guy, it’s by far the most layered of all the performances I’ve done. And you’re talking about The Departed, and whether it’s Shooter or Fear or any of those things. This guy is a whole other machine.
JACK: I mean, yeah, you didn’t have to put acting traps into this one, man. This guy is really —
MARK: And it’s also PG-13, so you don’t get to swear. You don’t get to hide behind any of that. The violence? I mean, trust me. You see Max Payne walking through a hallway, okay, and you know there’s two guys coming around the corner, you know what’s happening.
JACK: Let’s talk The Happening, because there were a couple of emotional scenes that you were into. But there were also some, like, comical scenes about it, and I’m thinking, am I supposed to be scared, or am I supposed to be laughing?
MARK: We wanted people to laugh even in the scary moments, you know.
JACK: Got it. Explain that, explain sort of that fine-line division, where it comes in.
MARK: Well, there were certain things that, obviously, even for me, after making this movie — I know everything that’s going to happen from the very opening of the movie. I was like, oh my God, I kept being shocked, and I know what’s going to happen. I imagine what it’s going to do for the person who doesn’t know anything about the story.
But also, you know, like our America’s obsession with being paranoid about terrorists, right? So in the middle of the movie, people are still saying, “the terrorists,” or whatever, whoever it is. You know that by this point it’s not terrorists. You’re in a field in the middle of Philadelphia. There’s no terrorists running around with little chemical booby traps, you know what I mean? It’s not going to happen. So I tried to bring as much humanness to it. That was always a goal of ours, and I certainly encouraged that, which is why I think he had me playing the part, and John Leguizamo, and Zooey.
Because Zooey plays the toughest role, because she’s the unlikeable girl who we still have to root for. And if she just comes across as a straight, you know what, then it just doesn’t work. You don’t care about her, and then you don’t want the relationship to succeed. And then you’re like, well, if they survive, if not, you’d rather see them actually die like everybody else.
JACK: Absolutely. I got no more time left. I just wanted to, first of all, congratulate you on your brother getting the New Kids on the Block back together. Which begs the question — you know where I’m going with this, bro?
MARK: Not a chance.
JACK: Because he didn’t want to do it, because of the whole credibility aspect, but then he ended up doing it, and I was like, wow, you know what, they look great doing it now.
MARK: And they’ve asked me the questions. Hip-hop was a young man’s game.
JACK: I know, but to bring you on in a Boston arena — and he goes, “I want to bring a guest out,” and you go in and you do your thing. Would you feel like, “I’m corny and cheesy, this isn’t cool for me”? If you do it right?
MARK: Well, doing it right — there’s still no real right way for me to do it. They can do it the right way. They’re doing it the right way.
JACK: But he was an actor too, doing some really serious roles.
MARK: Yeah, but you know me, like I said, hip-hop is different from singing — singing to the ladies and doing the whole thing. You know, it’s a young man’s game. Rolling Stones, they’re still wheeling them out. They can go on forever. I think the New Kids can also kind of fit into that category.
JACK: Am I ever gonna see Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch again, man?
MARK: It’s probably not gonna happen. But, you know, the real Johnny Drama, who’s here today — it’s like, I’d have to go on with them, and I’d have to apologize to them. Because he says that, obviously, I just got out of jail, then I got a record out, I’m on tour with them, and they’re uncomfortable on their own tour. I’m bullying everybody, he said. Except for my brother, I was bullying everybody, and they were scared to come out of the green room and stuff. And I don’t think that that was necessarily true, but if it is, I apologize.
You know, I introduced them at their first concert ever.
JACK: Really?
MARK: Yeah. It was an all-Black show at the Lee School, which is in Roxbury, and it’s a talent contest. So Maurice Starr had me come out, and I did a little freestyle rap, did a little breakdance thing to kind of break the tension. And then they came out and did their thing.
JACK: Mark, I appreciate the time, man.
MARK: Oh, no, it was a pleasure. Appreciate it, man.
