Mark Wahlberg is embracing the new look he adopted for the filming of his newest action thriller Flight Risk, co-starring Michelle Dockery and Topher Grace.
The 53-year-old star plays an antagonistic pilot in the Mel Gibson directorial venture, which was released on January 24 and opened at number one at the box office on its debut weekend.
In a new interview, the actor remarked on leaning into the humor of the character despite the film's serious tone and partially shaving his head for the role.
Mark confessed that he partially shaved his head each day of filming to give his character a balding look, although admitted that the lack of hair gave him "a stress free rest of the summer" once he was able to shave it all off after filming wrapped.
"I was at the lake. I felt so good when I get out of the water, I don't have to dry my hair or anything," the dad-of-four told People.
Someone who wasn't afraid to call him out over it, however, was his wife Rhea Durham, 46, who took to social media soon after with a candid snap of her husband in a makeup chair with his partially shaven head.
"For better or for worse," she quipped in her caption, quickly receiving several laughing emojis in the comments section and responses like: "Best hairstyle in the last 20 years," and: "Definitely in the worst category," as well as the succinct: "Deceased."
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Mark also spoke about working with Mel as a director for the first time after they'd appeared on screen together in 2017 and 2022. "We did a lot of improvising, a lot of Mel throwing different things out there, but there was a lot in the script as well."
"I would kind of talk to Mel about, 'I want to kind of just surprise them with this or surprise them with that,'" he continued. "I loved all the moments like me trying to get out of the handcuffs and trying to pick the thing and just sitting there."
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"Nothing was gonna stop this guy. He didn't think anybody was walking away from this flight. He certainly wasn't going to, either way."
Flight Risk is Mark's first major foray into an antagonistic role since his very first starring role, 1996's Fear opposite Reese Witherspoon, although mentioned that he still wanted to bring his signature humor to the character.
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"Being a very religious guy too, I've always said, whether it be Ted or this movie or anything else, that God's a fan of movies and has a sense of humor," he mentioned to the publication about what his boundaries were.
"But it's just the movie and the character. I never want to kind of censor that in myself. I think we push the envelope and then let everybody else decide. But being that character, it's better to push it and have it. You can always tone it back. You can't really crank it up."