Mark Wahlberg slammed actors for comparing their job to being in the military in an expletive-laced tirade during a Q&A for the premiere of his new film, Lone Survivor , Tuesday night.
“You don’t do what these guys did,” Wahlberg said. “For somebody to sit there and say my job was as difficult as being in the military? How f***ing dare you, while you sit in a makeup chair for two hours.”
Some media outlets connected Wahlberg’s rant to recent comments by Tom Cruise . During a recent deposition for his $50 million libel lawsuit against a magazine publisher that claimed he abandoned his daughter, Suri, Cruise appeared to compare acting to being in the military .
“That’s what it feels like,” Cruise said. “And certainly on this last movie, it was brutal. It was brutal.”
But Cruise’s lawyer said the comment was taken out of context. Bert Fields said Cruise was asked, “Do you believe the situations [being in a movie and fighting a war in Afghanistan] are the same?” Cruise responded, “Oh, come on,” which Fields said clearly meant “of course not.” That part of the deposition wasn’t publicly released, Fields said.
TMZ caught up with Mark Wahlberg Wednesday and asked if he was directing his comments at Tom Cruise . Wahlberg said he wasn’t, and that he wasn’t even aware that it was Cruise who made the original statement.
“I didn’t know that it was Tom Cruise who had said that,” Wahlberg said. “Somebody had just mentioned that people were comparing [acting and being in the military]. I love Tom Cruise. He’s a great actor. I have the utmost respect for Tom Cruise, but I have the utmost respect for military guys; it’s just unfair for anybody to comment on that.”
Lone Survivor is based on SEAL Team 10’s failed Operation Red Wings mission, which was to capture or kill a notorious Taliban leader during the War in Afghanistan. Wahlberg plays HM1 Marcus Luttrell, the only team member to survive an ambush by Islamic fundamentalist Ahmad Shah and his men. The movie is out in limited release on December 27, with a wide release on January 10, 2014.
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