Mark Wahlberg is a beacon of perseverance and faith.
On Wednesday, the Catholic actor opened up about his faith as he visited the “Today” show with a telltale sign of Ash Wednesday – an ash smudge on his forehead. For many denominations of Christianity, this is the start of Lent which lasts for six and a half weeks leading up to Easter; it pays homage to Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection.
Wahlberg proclaimed that his faith has been paramount in helping him maintain self-control and dedication to his film career.
Faith has been life-changing for the 51-year-old actor, citing “[Faith] is everything, it’s afforded me so many things.” He also acknowledges that publicly expressing his faith is important to him and he doesn’t “want to jam it down anybody’s throat.” “It’s a balance,” he said.
“It’s not popular in my industry, but, you know, I cannot deny my faith. It’s important for me to share that with people. I have friends from all walks of life and all different types of faiths and religions, so you know, it’s important to respect and honor them as well,” he said.
Explaining his move from rapping to acting, the former artist stated that he had to come up with more self-control in life.
Wahlberg continued, “And that discipline has afforded me so many other things. I want to share that with people. So whether that’s with fasting, detaching from other things, and just spending more time with God in prayer or in thoughtful reflection and those things are important.”
“God knows the things that He wants you to detach from,” he said. “We all know those things that make us feel guilty, don’t make us feel as good as we should. So being able to detach from those things and focus on good habits as opposed to bad habits is just challenging people to be better versions of themselves.”
Back in 2017, Walhberg earnestly sought forgiveness from the Almighty for his role as porn star Dirk Diggler in the critically acclaimed 1997 film “Boogie Nights.” During his presentation at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago, he voiced his desire 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.”
Last year, Mark Wahlberg revealed on the “Ellen DeGeneres Show” that he kept his large prosthetic penis from shooting Paul Thomas Anderson’s movie. Although there are some details of this flick he doesn’t regret, keeping the prop was one thing!
“It’s in a safe locked away,” he stated. “It’s not something I could leave out. All of a sudden my kids are looking for a spare phone charger and pull that thing out and go, ‘What the heck is this?!’ It wouldn’t be a good look.”
