Ellen DeGeneres sat down with Mark Wahlberg this week, and considering that her daytime talk show is ending this year after its 19th season, the longtime host took the opportunity to ask the 50-year-old actor questions she’s never asked him before.
Unsurprisingly, Wahlberg was asked about one of his early defining breakout film roles in 1997’s Boogie Nights, which turns 25 this year. But Ellen was less concerned with Walhberg’s critically acclaimed performance and more interested in the giant freaking prosthetic hog he wore in the film.
Personally, we would have asked him about the time he made a young Reese Witherspoon orgasm on a rollercoaster, but sure, let’s talk fake dicks.
“Is it true that you still have the prosthetic that you wore in Boogie Nights?” Degeneres asked, to which Wahlberg responded with a resounding “Yes.”
“It’s in a safe locked away. It’s not something I could leave out,” he explained. “All of a sudden my kids are looking for you know, the spare phone charger and pull that thing out and go like, ‘What the heck — what the heck is that?’ It wouldn’t be a good look.”
“I think my daughter has, but she has not had the conversation with me yet,” Walhberg continued, when asked if any of his children have seen the movie. “Thank god, she’s sparing me,” he quipped.
“That was a great movie, you were great in that movie,” Degeneres continued, heaping praise upon her guest. “I mean, you’re great in every movie. You are just an amazing — who would have thought? Marky Mark would turn into — you’re brilliant.”
“Nobody would have thought,” Walhberg countered. “That’s why, the expectations were so low when I started acting, that it was just like, you do something remotely interesting, ‘Oh my god, he’s fantastic!’ Next thing you know, they nominate me for an Oscar!”
Walhberg was later nominated for Best Supporting Actor for 2007’s The Departed — not Boogie Nights — but in either case, we’re glad he’s stayed humble this far into his career.