A few months ago, I was standing on the set ofMichael Bay’sTransformers: The Last Knightoutside of Detroit, Michigan. In between getting to see Bay work up close for the first time and watching tons of explosions and gunfire, I was able to participate in a group interview withMark Wahlberg. Since he was in every shot, we had to keep starting and stopping our interview, but considering how busy he was, I was happy to get any time with him. During our interview he talked about what’s different in the latest installment of the franchise, why his daughter (played byNicola PeltzinTransformers: Age of Extinction) isn’t in the film, his relationship withLaura Haddock’s character, and more. Check out what he had to say below.
Question: We just watched you and watched some of this shit blow up and I have to tell you I’ve never seen anything like this on a set visit. Is this like the typical day onTransformers?
MARK WAHLBERG: Yeah, it’s pretty common. For a lot of explosions and stuff like that you’re harnessed to something getting swung in the air or dragged onto something or thrown onto something.
How does the experience in this one compare to the last one?
WAHLBERG: A little more tiring, a little older, but fun. For Michael and I this is our third movie so we’re quite familiar with each other and know where to push each other and bring the best out of each other. But I’m definitely not as young as I used to be, that’s the biggest difference. So you need to have new people, young people that are super excited and super eager to get in there anytime we’re doing something dangerous action-wise. It’s pretty annoying but I get it, I understand the enthusiasm, I just give it a little time.
Sounds like Cade isn’t too tired, he’s sort of harboring the Autobots in this world now at this point.
WAHLBERG: Yeah, you know, he’s like a man on the run which is fun, it’s a bit of an adventure story.
What happened to his daughter?
WAHLBERG: You’ll find out in the movie.
We heard this movie takes place a little bit of time after the last one, so can you talk a little bit about where…?
WAHLBERG: They wanted to make sense that I was older, a little slower. But yeah, you meet up with Cade now and he’s living elsewhere and he’s basically had to go on his own on the run, which is one of the reasons why, to protect his daughter and ensure that she is no longer hunted in the way that Cade is. But yeah, a loner.
How much have you learned from the SEALs being on set?
WAHLBERG: Well I certainly learned enough fromLone Survivor. But it’s nice because they get to do a little bit more of the action stuff, once I’m now in this moment of the movie, the third act. In the beginning of the movie I’m kind of carrying the weight and so now I got some of the guys that are qualified with guns and stuff like that. But they’re great to work with because they care and they’re committed and they’re pros and they’re not gonna do anything they don’t need to do, but certainly keep up doing anything needed.
One of the things about this film is this is after this writers ring that came up with new stories, and everyone seems very excited about this script and the story and introducing all this stuff. What was your reaction reading the script for the first time?
WAHLBERG: I was excited because it doesn’t really make sense unless you’re able to do something different, it’s all kind of been done before, but they came up with a new cool thing.
I was asking, when you read the script on this one, what your reaction was and you were talking about the story.
WAHLBERG: I was pleasantly surprised, you want to do something different and being this kind of “man on the run” adventure story is a nice departure from what we did before. It introduces new cool characters and Cade’s got this great relationship with this smart, sophisticated English woman and that creates a lot of humor, and there’s a lot of new characters that are cool.
We heard that you and the English woman has a little bit of a back-and-forth.
WAHLBERG: Yes, which is fun because by the time I get to England I’m definitely a fish out of water, but Cade’s not pushover either so between Anthony [Hopkins]’s character, her (Laura Haddock) character, there’s a lot of great comedy that comes from that, a lot of things to play off of. I certainly attempt to give them a run for their money.
I love when you do straight-out comedy, I think like roles like inTedare so against dramatic roles. I wonder, is it harder doing comedy than action like this? Because comedy isn’t always easy for dramatic actors.
WAHLBERG: I mean, if I could snap my fingers and just be sitting in a room after forty something days of getting the crap kicked out of me, I’d rather be doing comedy, but this stuff is fun too. I approach it the same, and I don’t do much extra for a laugh or anything, I just kind of play it real and hopefully the comedy comes from circumstances. But I always enjoyed doing it when I was in the las thing, so after this I looked forward to just sitting in a room talking, that would be nice. Oddly enough I was watchingThe Brink’s Joband there’s a scene with Peter Falk in Dudley Station in Boston and I was like, “Wow, just people talking, I really wanna do a movie like that.”
Even in comedies you still have some dramatic moments, I remember I went to a set visit forThe Other Guysand I think you had the scene where [Michael] Keaton’s character takes you guys off the case and he wanted you to cry more, you really had to turn it on, so you still bring your dramatic chops.
WAHLBERG: Yeah, well I always try to play it real.
You’re obviously the star of the movie, but the humans aren’t because you have these robots, do you still feel like the star of the movie with Optimus Prime and Hot Rod and Megatron?
WAHLBERG: I’m always like everybody else, I just approach it as a piece of the puzzle where we’re all here to service Michael’s vision. It’s perfectly fine like that, I never look at it as more pressure or less pressure unless of course we’re telling a true story in a movie like aLone Survivorwhere you have real people depending on you to get it right and do them justice, so there’s no pressure now.
[Shooting beings in the background]
WAHLBERG: Behind you guys the one guy got ratcheted up in the air and you guys missed that completely.
In the fantasy side of the film how do you feel like the military maneuvers are portrayed, betweenLone Survivorand this how much of a difference do you notice?
WAHLBERG: Well these are all mostly real guys so other than the fact that we’re battling aliens they attempt to be as accurate in everything and stay as close to the code as possible.
