Mark Wahlberg’s Journey from Troubled Youth to Hollywood Star: Insights from ‘Pain & Gain’

Before he changed into one of the hip Hollywood actors, Mark Wahlberg was a rebel and a law-breaker, with quite a number of brushes with the law. The path from a troubled youth to a famous actor was made very clear during the work on the movie ‘Pain & Gain’ in 2013 with the director Michael Bay. Beside Dwayne Johnson and Anthony Mackie, Wahlberg portrayed Daniel Lugo, who was based on real-life criminals from the Sun Gym gang. The movie is based on actual events which made Wahlberg reconsider the time he was a restless and reckless teenager making ill choices in attempt to live a lavish life.

Wahlberg further in an interview revealed how shooting for ‘Pain & Gain’ brought back some sort of childhood trauma to him. During the discussion of his past life he didn’t want to return: As Wahlberg said in the interview, he had nothing and saw people with what he wanted, therefore, he had to seize it: ‘I made some very poor decisions as a young person trying to get it in the fast and easy way. ’ Like the main characters in the film, Wahlberg’s experience with crime during his youth stemmed from desperation and the need to change one’s destiny.

However, in the early years Wahlberg had a number of difficulties but the actor changed his life when he started acting and also reached for faith. Today, he is famous not only for all the accomplishments in his acting career but also for the family and faith. Wahlberg’s story is as much a metaphor of the recovery and the possibility of change as a person.

But to play John, Wahlberg had to prove that he was more than an acting powerhouse, for Pain & Gain also required some raw physicality. In preparing for the role, the actor had to gain a lot of weight for a male buff look and even had to go through weekly spray tans something that Transformers director Michael Bay demanded. ‘It was the most uncomfortable thing,’ recalled Wahlberg. “I’d do it on my hotel balcony… and there I was, getting photographed in my underwear getting a tan – not a good image. ”

Unfortunately, Pain & Gain’s dark take on humor was cut short as it is available now on Paramount+, giving the audience an insight to both, the film and Wahlberg’s past.