Donnie, Alma, Paul and Mark Wahlberg
Splash News Online
Wahlberg will appear in a new unscripted A&E series about family-owned restaurant Wahlburgers alongside his mother and brothers Donnie and Paul. But the actor and producer shoots down any comparison to that other famous set of reality TV siblings.
“No, no. It’s very different. It’s very different. Nothing against them. They’ve been hugely successful,” he said in an interview Tuesday before the premiere of his war film Lone Survivor. ”It’s just about building a family business. Uh, it’s just very different, very different.”
In Lone Survivor, Wahlberg portrays Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell, part of a mission gone wrong in the mountains of Afghanistan in 2005. Nineteen Americans were killed in a firefight and helicopter rescue attempt.
Luttrell, now retired from the military, wrote a best-selling book about his experience and attended the AFI Fest premiere in Hollywood.
“I thought there was pressure playing Micky Ward [in The Fighter] until I signed on to play Marcus,” Wahlberg said. “Considering what he and his team members went through and what they sacrificed and the amount of loss that was suffered by their families, there was a lot of pressure to get it right and make them proud.”
The film, directed by Peter Berg, also stars Taylor Kitsch, Ben Foster and Emile Hirsch. It’s set to open wide on Jan. 10, while Wahlburgers begins airing later that month.
