When Mark Wahlberg turned down Martin Scorsese
Mark Wahlberg, the actor, gym shark and shoe-lover whose memorable roles include Boogie Nights and Ted, recently divulged that he was initially apprehensive about his role in Martin Scorsese’s critically acclaimed crime thriller, The Departed. Surprisingly, Wahlberg declined the role when it was initially offered to him.
Speaking in a GQ, Wahlberg confessed that he found himself in an awkward position regarding his involvement in the project, with his agent prematurely informing Scorsese of Wahlberg’s commitment. He recollected: “The Departed was interesting because I wasn’t committed to making the movie and my agent told Marty that I was.”
According to Wahlberg, however, personally calling up and disappointing someone like Scorsese was pretty easy: “Marty called me up, and he was so excited about making this movie together. I said, ‘I’m not doing the movie,'” Wahlberg recounted. At the time, the actor was negotiating certain conditions that were not aligning with the perspective of Scorsese and the studio.
Under increasing pressure, Wahlberg was ordered by his agent to meet Scorsese in person to discuss the project. In this meeting, despite expressing his initial reluctance, Scorsese managed to convince him by highlighting the potential of the role. “Marty told me, ‘Look at this part, look at what you get to do with all these people.'” Wahlberg shared, adding: “He knows I’m from that [Boston] world and I talked to him about improvising and doing my own thing and he said, ‘Dude, you’re free to do what you want to do.'”
Even after agreeing to the role, working on The Departed involved a bit of turbulence between the two. Recounting his experience, he revealed: “Marty and I were constantly in this struggle. I had problems with Marty”. A central point of dispute was Scorsese’s insistence on Wahlberg cutting his hair, which Wahlberg refused due to his role in another movie.
“I was only supposed to do a couple of weeks on The Departed so I was able to grow my hair for Invincible. But then the schedule changed, and four months later I’m still working on The Departed, so I wouldn’t cut my hair. Marty was pissed off,” Wahlberg admitted, eloquently retelling the conversation: “He was like, ‘You’ve got to cut your fucking hair’, and I was like, ‘I don’t give a fuck.'”
The strained dynamics were not just confined to the director; it extended to his co-stars, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, and Jack Nicholson – albeit under the guise of Wahlberg’s ‘character’. “The whole time I was in the character,” he divulged. “So I was mad at everybody. It was Leo, Matt, and Jack. Fucking Jack, too.” Despite the rocky filming experience, Wahlberg still saw potential in The Departed and initiated talks with the film’s screenwriter, Bill Monahan, about a possible sequel.
However, as he admits, “Let’s just say the pitch didn’t go very well”. Despite Monahan’s lack of a detailed plan, Wahlberg had faith in his writing abilities. “He didn’t really have anything fleshed out, but he’s the kind of guy who you just trust to go and write something. And so when we were working on the script for Cocaine Cowboys and American Desperado, I said, ‘Bill, just go write.'”
Despite his immediate hesitancy, his difficulty with Scorsese, and his opinion that he and the writer alone could make a great sequel, The Departed still signifies one of Wahlberg’s most impresive performances to date, if not the best of his career. For our sake and his, it’s fortunate everything worked out.
