Mark Wahlberg “hung up” on Martin Scorsese when he wasn’t offered the role he had auditioned for in The Departed.
Mark Wahlberg “hung up” on Martin Scorsese when he wasn’t offered the role he wanted in The Departed.
The 54-year-old actor won widespread acclaim for his role as Staff Sergeant Sean Dignam in the 2006 crime thriller but he originally auditioned for another part so wasn’t impressed to be asked to play the cop but eventually agreed, so long as he was given the freedom to play the part the way he wanted.
Asked how Scorsese had primed him for the role, Mark told BroBible.com: “It wasn’t really that he primed me. I was originally in talks to play one of the other roles, and then the studio saw it differently.
“I got a call from Marty saying how excited he was that I agreed to play Sergeant Dignam — and I was like, I didn’t agree to play Sergeant Dignam. I kind of hung up on him.
“Then [agent] Ari Emanuel, the real Ari Gold, calls me and says, ‘You can’t hang up on Marty.’ I said, ‘That’s not what we were talking about.’ He said, ‘Please just take another look.’
“I was shooting Four Brothers in Toronto, and when I read it again from Dignam’s perspective, I said I’ll do this as long as he lets me improvise and just go at everybody. And Marty said that’s exactly what he wanted.”
Mark admitted his take on Dignam was based partly on “cops and crooks” that he knew in real life.
He said: “I’ve seen a lot of guys like that — cops and crooks in the neighbourhood. I was most familiar with that world.
“It was kind of a cross between a couple of guys I knew and a little bit of Wojohowicz from Barney Miller — a comedy about detectives, Abe Vigoda, all those people. Great sitcom.
“I was just going to push it, and every time I did, Marty would always say, ‘Give him a little more.’ ”
Mark showed a very different side to his range in the 2010 action comedy The Other Guys and he was thankful to co-star Will Ferrell and director Adam McKay for offering a “safe environment” to try new things.
Asked what working with Will had taught him, he said: “Just being comfortable enough in your own skin to let it go, throw caution to the wind, and be fearless enough to try anything.
“I had always done movies where there were comedic elements — from Boogie Nights through Huckabees and Three Kings — but to do a full-blown comedy was definitely uncharted territory.
“Working with Will and Adam, they were really nice people who enjoyed making people laugh. It was a very safe environment to try stuff, and it got to the point where you stop worrying about what people think and just commit.”
Mark Wahlberg ‘hung up’ on Martin Scorsese over Departed role change
