We have all made poor choices at one time or another, and we have to learn to live with that. In fact, even the successful Mark Wahlberg has taken on a few projects that he is not proud of. As it turns out, Boogie Nights is one of those projects, and the actor recently admitted that he even hopes that God will eventually forgive him for starring in the Paul Thomas Anderson film. Wahlberg took the stage for a church-sponsored event in Chicago and said:
I just always hope that God is a movie fan and also forgiving, because I've made some poor choices in my past. Boogie Nights is up there at the top of the list.
These comments came during an appearance at a Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago event (via Chicago Tribune) on Friday night during which Mark Wahlberg took the stage alongside Cardinal Blase Cupich. The Patriots Day star held nothing back about his somewhat troubled adolescence, and he has consistently attributed much of his ability to turn his life around to his involvement with the Catholic church. Among those regrets is the fact that he's not entirely proud of his decision to star in Boogie Nights, a movie about the porn industry. Now he just has to hope that God indeed "is a movie fan."
This actually is not the first time that Mark Wahlberg has sought forgiveness from a religious figure for one of his films. Just a few years ago he had a chance to meet The Pope, and he even apologized to the holy figure for his work on Seth MacFarlane's Ted.
Of course, from a purely pragmatic and non-religious point of view, the importance of Boogie Nights for Mark Wahlberg's career cannot be overstated. Although he had previously acted in films like Fear and The Basketball Diaries before his role as Eddie Adams, a.k.a Dirk Diggler, in Boogie Nights, it was that performance as a young man navigating the California porn industry that elevated him to serious actor status. From there, it paved the way for roles in films like Three Kings, The Perfect Storm, and his eventual Oscar-nominated performance in The Departed. That said, given Boogie Nights' subject matter (which actually made Wahlberg hesitant to take the role in the first place), it's not hard to imagine why Wahlberg might feel regretful about it in front of a more religious audience. He previously even said he was peer pressured a little bit into taking the gig, noting,
I wouldn't even read the script because I was turned off by the subject matter. Then you start hearing from everybody in town, 'No, no, you have to read this thing.'
Looking ahead to the future of Mark Wahlberg's film career, he will once again step into the boots of tough guy dad Dusty Mayron alongside Will Ferrell when Daddy's Home 2 debuts in theaters next month on November 10.
