Despite starring in what’s quite frankly an astonishing array of terrible movies covering countless genres dating back decades, Mark Wahlberg can be a great dramatic actor in the right project.
His Academy Award-nominated performance in The Departed is arguably the most notable example, but the rapper-turned-thespian has delivered a string of solid turns throughout his career. Unfortunately, his medium of preference happens to be the hard-boiled thriller where he plays a straight-laced and no-nonsense hero, which also tends to be the arena in which he fails the hardest and most often.
Then again, it’s been a while since he appeared in anything that could justifiably be deemed as unanimously praised, and given the repeated controversies to have dogged him across the course of his life both in and out of the public eye, it’s maybe not all that surprising that his hints towards retirement in an interview with Cigar Aficionado have been greeted with open arms by certain corners of social media.
“Well, I’m certainly working harder now than ever. Certain businesses, you kind of build them, pass them on or you exit. Hopefully my kids, we’ll see what their interests are, but I don’t think that I’ll be acting that much longer at the pace I am now. That’s for sure. Because that’s the most difficult thing.”
It wasn’t even an overtly-veiled threat that he’s planning to step away from his on-camera activities, but even the merest suggestion has inevitably led to some spicy takes crossing their fingers in the hopes the polarizing Wahlberg eventually decides that he’s had enough of being a leading man.