Chris, did you have conversations with Mark about Samuel L. Jackson's comments about rappers moving to acting and taking jobs from real actors? Did you mention him in your song to get back at him?
Chris Bridges: "I mean, nobody ever, like actors, I only hear about it through other people. No one has ever said anything to my face."
Mark Wahlberg: "Sam was mad for a little while. I think he's come around now. Sam lives right around the corner from me. Sam is mad at the supermarket when I see him. People come up to him and they're like, 'Mr. Jackson.' 'Nah, nah.'"
Chris Bridges: "I actually just had a party at Comic Con and he came through there, so when I said that in that verse, it was kind of just poking fun. That's all it was. It was a play off words but at the end of the day, like he said about the actors and them griping about some rappers taking their jobs, I hear about it through other people. But no one's ever said anything directly to me."
Mark Wahlberg: "Well, the thing is, certainly when I started, it was an extremely difficult thing to become a respected actor and not many musicians had done it. But if you look at Chris's approach, it's not like, 'Okay, I'm kinda coming in and out, taking a couple of paychecks and not really respecting the art form and trying to grow as an actor and trying to be taken seriously.' We've talked a lot. We have a lot in common. He's asked me advice. He's not too cool to say, 'Hey, what do you think about this? What do you think about that?' I think he's going to have a long, lengthy career."
"But before me and Will Smith, there wasn't many people who had done it successfully. So, you know, if you got a bunch of guys just coming in, taking roles from great actors, a guy like Sam Jackson who's one of the finest actors in the business and didn't really get his break until late in life, so I can understand where he's coming from. But you have to talk about the individuals that are doing it. And Chris is a guy who has much respect for the art form and has continued to try. I told him it's a marathon, it's not a sprint. And he's really choosing roles to continue to grow as an actor, work with people that he can learn from and become better."
Chris Bridges: "The check is in the mail."
Mark Wahlberg: "The next Will Smith, baby."
Mila, was there any room for levity in this?
Mila Kunis: "Oh, what were you going to say?"
Mark Wahlberg: "Nothing. No, she is very funny."
Mila Kunis: "Mark doesn't think I'm very funny."
Mark Wahlberg: "She's mean."
Mila Kunis: "See? See, that's funny. No, you know, no, Mona Sax wasn't very funny but coming off of Sarah Marshall, I got to laugh by myself in my hotel room plenty. No, I'm kidding. It was fine. It was different but it was fine. Yeah, I liked it, but it was very different."
Do you have to turn it off?
Mila Kunis: "Around him, yeah. Absolutely."
Mark Wahlberg: "She never stopped, she never stopped."
Mila Kunis: "I stopped. I stopped after like two weeks. I was like, 'Eh, f-ck this, I won't be funny.' See, they laugh. It's amazing what happens. No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'm totally kidding. I have this odd tendency to be really sarcastic when I'm uncomfortable and I don't really know why but it just comes out and it's come out since I was a child and Mark makes me incredibly uncomfortable so thus I do dumb sh-t in front of him and made dumb comments. And then halfway through he just looks at me and goes, 'What?' And then I was like, 'Aw, f-ck.'"
Mark Wahlberg: "Well, you'll be standing there and she'll come up and kick you from behind. She's like, 'Oh, that was really funny. Ha ha ha ha ha ha.' I'm like, 'Why was that…?'"
Mila Kunis: "That was different. No, no, that was different."
Mark Wahlberg: "Yeah, she cracks herself up. That's for sure."
Mila Kunis: "I do. I make myself laugh all the time. I think I'm really funny. I do."
What was the biggest challenge of the role?
Mark Wahlberg: "Well, the biggest challenge for me was going to that emotional place and having to imagine something horrible happening to my family. And then the biggest physical challenge was keeping up the mystery and the façade that I'm actually tough and cool and that I can go and do all this action stuff and it doesn't hurt and I'm not scared, because I'm not the thrill seeker that I used to be. Having three children, I told Chris, you know, he says, 'Oh, I gotta get this new motorcycle.' I said, 'No, I gave my motorcycle away. No more jumping out of planes or off of buildings or any of that stuff.' I said in between movies, I tell them to wrap me up in cellophane so nothing happens because I want to be able to play with my kids. I've been very fortunate, very lucky. I've a bunch of close calls but a movie like this, you want to get in there and make it as realistic as possible. But anything too dangerous, I got a few guys that look exactly like me. Even when I'm driving down the street, if I see somebody who looks like me, I ask them if they're willing to jump out a window or get hit by a car. No faster than 35 miles an hour of course, but, yeah."
Page 4: On Sequels, Marriage, and Video Game Movies
