While Mark Wahlberg and Leonardo DiCaprio have been contemporaries in terms of proximity in age and the generation in which they have worked in Hollywood, their career paths have been very different. While DiCaprio made his way up the ranks first as a child artist to a Hollywood A-lister, Wahlberg started his career as a rapper and singer for the group Mark Mark and the Funky Bunch before stepping into the world of movies.
The two stars have worked together in two films, The Basketball Diaries in 1995 and the Oscar-winning The Departed in 2006 for which Wahlberg earned a Best Supporting Actor nomination. The Titanic star though was initially against the Transformers actor being part of The Basketball Diaries owing to their moment of friction in the 90s.
Leonardo DiCaprio Rejected Mark Wahlberg’s Casting in The Basketball Diaries
Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Wahlberg are two of Hollywood’s most prominent stars today. The contemporaries are also good friends, having worked together in The Basketball Diaries and The Departed. In the critically acclaimed The Basketball Diaries, DiCaprio played the autobiographical role of Jim Caroll who went from being a basketball star to a drug addict.
The film had a strong ensemble including Mark Wahlberg. But The Revenant actor was not happy to see Wahlberg cast in the film as both stars had got off on the wrong foot after the Renaissance Man actor had made a poor first impression on the Shutter Island star at an earlier meeting. Wahlberg addressed their first encounter and elaborated,
“Leonardo was like, ‘Over my dead f*cking body’. Marky Mark’s not going to be in this f*cking movie. Because we’d had a thing. I didn’t even realize it, [but] I was a bit of a d*ck to him at a charity basketball game. So he was like, ‘This f*cking a*shole is not going to be in this movie.’ ”
But Director Avy Kaufman saw Wahlberg as a good fit for the role of Mickey and persuaded DiCaprio to read with him. Once they performed their scene together, the two actors bonded famously and the rest was history.
Mark Wahlberg Had To Prove His Worth For The Basketball Diaries
1995’s The Basketball Diaries was a stepping stone for actor Mark Wahlberg to make his way up the ladder in Hollywood. The Shooter star, who was also a rapper and singer in his group Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, had to convince his co-star Leonardo DiCaprio that he possessed the ability to be a serious actor. Wahlberg who auditioned 6 times for the part of Mickey in the film, said,
“I was just, ya know, as a rapper, I was just kinda out-there and loud and crazy and all this stuff, and it was a very serious movie and a very serious part. No one had seen me act in a film. I had to really kinda just go out there and prove myself.”
Wahlberg’s commitment and passion to be a Hollywood star reaped big rewards with the actor becoming one of the most bankable faces in Hollywood while also earning critical acclaim for his performances in films like The Departed and Father Stu.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
