Little did Mark Wahlberg know that his 2010 movie will turn out to be such a noteworthy project of his career. The sports drama film that involved the Ted star as both the lead and the producer was a surprise hit, both critically and commercially. If Wahlberg’s words are to be believed, then it can be understood that his dedication to making a perfect movie had a huge contribution to the success.
The Fighter focused on the story of professional boxer Micky Ward and his half-brother Dicky Eklund played by Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale respectively. Interestingly, the movie cost Wahlberg more than he was paid, as the lead was hell-bent on making it as authentic as possible.
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What caused Mark Wahlberg to spend so much on The Fighter?
The David O. Russell directorial earned a total of around $129 million along with two Oscar wins out of seven nominations. But Mark Wahlberg left no stone unturned to make the movie more authentic and different compared to other movies of a similar genre and spent $500k more than what he was paid.
In the quest for maximum realism, the Transformers: Age of Extinction actor spent a lot on trainers who tried hard to make The Fighter more distinct than other movies focusing on the same subject.
“There are many, many boxing movies, and I love most of them. But I knew that the thing that would set us apart was if the fights looked more real, and I looked more like a boxer than anyone else who’s done it in the past. I spent more money paying my trainers and having them travel with me than I got paid, by a good half a million dollars.”
Wahlberg’s co-star Christian Bale earned immense praise as well for his performance, along with an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Amy Adams and Melissa Leo also appeared in the movie with the latter earning another Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
But the loss didn’t matter much to Mark Wahlberg, as The Fighter is considered one of the most significant movies in his career. It was his passion project as well which also led the actor to many years of training before the release of the movie. Bale also stated that his co-star was ring training for the movie for 5 years to play the role.
The Fighter became a surprise hit for Mark Wahlberg
Mark Wahlberg was not at all shy to admit that he never thought that the movie will be so appreciated. At one point, he even thought that the movie will come out on DVD instead of a wider theatrical release. But in the end, he was proved wrong when The Fighter exceeded all his expectations.
“Before we made the movie, I thought we could make a great movie. But I still didn’t imagine it would go on to do all those things: to be that successful at the box office, winning those awards, getting all those nominations. So it definitely exceeded expectations.”
The dedication towards the first movie and its unexpected success also made the 52-year-old scratch his head over the idea of a sequel. He intended to develop another movie to show the story of Micky Ward’s famous fight against Arturo Gatti.
In 2013, Jerry Ferrara was even cast in the role of Gatti after which there were scarcely any updates about the sequel. Later in 2015, producer Todd Lieberman also stated that the sequel was far from over but we are yet to receive any more updates about it.
The Fighter can be streamed on Prime Video.
Source: Sports Illustrated (via Contact Music)
