Mark Wahlberg has always been a big devotee of the Catholic faith. And with his movie Father Stu, he finally got the chance to build a bridge between two of the greatest passions in his life. However, the journey obviously was not easy. Wahlberg mentioned that he got rejected by many producers as they could not see his vision of how inspiring this movie can turn out to be.
However, according to him, this later turned out to be just another form of challenge for him which he steadily overcame by deciding to make the movie himself. And in the process, allegedly, his long-time friend Mel Gibson inspired him to take the leap and make his own dream come true. And with the movie out, it seems, Wahlberg is only too glad that he took the leap.
Mark Wahlberg’s struggles with Father Stu
Mark Wahlberg‘s movie Father Stu tells the story of former boxer Stuart Long, who after a horrific motorcycle accident, dedicated his entire life to the Roman Catholic Church. Long, on who the movie is based, died in 2014 after years of fighting a rare autoimmune disease named inclusion body myositis, but his story left a lot of people feeling inspired and rejuvenated.
Wahlberg himself had been searching for such a story to bring to life on the big screen for years. After someone relayed Long’s story to him, Wahlberg decided then and there that this is the story he is going to tell to the world through the big screen. However, the road to realizing this dream was not easy. Allegedly, Mark Wahlberg was trying to make this movie for more than five years.
However, every time he tried to pitch it to someone, he “thought maybe [they] would get it, and they didn’t.” This, obviously kept pushing it back over and over again. Although he noted that it is obviously completely subjective how people view something, what really started to get to him was how,
“Some people thought it was depressing because he’s sick at the end. They didn’t see the heart and the emotion and, ultimately, how inspiring it is.”
However, thankfully after Gibson’s much-needed intervention, Wahlberg was finally motivated to make this movie all by himself. Because as he mentioned, “Listen, these kinds of things don’t come around that often,” and so he seems to have gained immense pleasure from the way the movie and Stuart Long’s role challenged him throughout the movie.
Mel Gibson inspired Mark Wahlberg to make Father Stu
As mentioned, Mel Gibson was possibly the major factor behind the movie finally coming off the shelves. Allegedly, after observing Gibson’s passion behind making The Passion of Christ, the controversial movie everybody rejected to finance until he took the helm himself, Wahlberg decided that following his friend’s path might be fruitful for him.
Interestingly, Mel Gibson’s movie, although initially rejected by studios, went on to become a blockbuster hit with over $350 million at the box office. As such, observing this unfold before his eyes, gave Wahlberg the push he needed. And he does not seem to have any regrets about putting a good bank on making his dream project. He noted,
“Let’s just say I put millions and millions of dollars into the film — and then incurring other costs because we went over schedule in production, and there are clearances for the music.”
However, he was not the only one who financed the movie. It seems, not only Mel Gibson with motivation, but his other friends as well came out to support him to the best of their capabilities seeing his passion. Mark Wahlberg explained,
“I also had one friend come in who is not in the film business but believed in the project, and I had another friend who is in the film business who came in for a small portion.”
And all these olive branches together helped him make the fruitful tree his movie turned out to be. So obviously, he has not forgotten to repay accordingly. The results of this are evident to people with Mel Gibson playing Stuart Long’s father in the movie.
Father Stu is available for streaming on Amazon Prime.
Source: Insider
