Mark Wahlberg and His "Four Brothers"

In Theaters August 12

Four Brothers tells the story of adopted siblings who go home for their mother’s funeral. Since they’re from the street, it doesn’t take them long to start tearing things up looking for mom’s killer. With Mark Wahlberg in the lead, one has to wonder, if something happened to Mrs. Wahlberg, would Mark and Donnie go busting heads?

“You know, that’s not something I want to even have to think about because I’m raised Catholic and you’re supposed to be able to forgive in order to be forgiven,” Wahlberg said seriously. “But in a situation like that, if something happened to someone I cared about, or even somebody that couldn’t defend themselves, I don't think I’d be too rational. I’d think about what the right thing was to do after I was already in jail. So God forbid something like that ever happens.”

Having appeared in a slew of blockbusters from The Perfect Storm to Planet of the Apes to The Italian Job, Wahlberg saw the more intimate story of Four Brothers as more appealing. “[I was drawn to] the opportunity to make a movie that I would actually run out and go and see as opposed to a lot of the movies I’ve made. If I wasn’t in it, I’d probably wait until I caught it on a plane or in a hotel or something. So everything about it. I just thought wow, this is right in my wheelhouse and if done the right way with the right guys, this could be a very special movie.”

Wait. Does that mean Mark Wahlberg wouldn’t rush out to see Planet of the Apes? “No. I wouldn’t even make Planet of the Apes again, and I love Tim Burton. I don't think Tim Burton would want to make Planet of the Apes again. But I’m not at the point in my career where I want to just make movies to work with directors who have accomplished something in their past. It’s got to be about movies that I would want to see now. I don’t feel like doing that kind of thing.”

As recently as three years ago, Wahlberg would say that the director is the primary reason for choosing a movie. That has not completely changed. “The director is the key element, no doubt about it, but I’m not going to work with anybody if they’re doing a movie that I wouldn’t want to see or play a role that I wouldn’t want to play. I think I’ve paid my dues. I’ve certainly done a lot of things for the experience and for the knowledge and know how and now is the time to make the kind of movies that I think people want to see me in.”

Shooting the film during an Ontario Winter reminded Wahlberg of his days growing up in Boston. “There were some days where it was jus cold, but in my opinion, cold is better than heat. I was shooting [in New York] during the heat wave. With the cold, you can put more layers on, you can put heating pads on. We were skating around and we were moving, you were able to get warm. Heat, you can’t escape.”

With three other costars sharing billing above the film’s title, there were no egos on the set. Everyone got along swimmingly according to Wahlberg. “I just think we share a mutual respect for one another. Talent, personally and professionally. We just liked each other. We could have gone in there and done a decent job whether we liked each other or not, but the fact that we liked each other so much and we pushed each other so hard, I think that’s why the chemistry is so strong. And that’s what makes it a great movie as opposed to a good script with some potential.”

Wahlberg is now considered an actor who can open a movie. This is some leap from the days when he was the artist formerly known as Marky Mark. “I’d like to think [things changed] right around Basketball Diaries and Fear. A lot of people think the real establishing performance was Boogie Nights and then afterwards it was Three Kings and Perfect Storm and stuff like that. I think from Renaissance Man and on, I was just an actor. How you’re perceived, how people want to describe you is up to them.”

As he works in front of the camera on film after film, Wahlberg now has the TV series Entourage under his production. Loosely based on his early days in Hollywood, Wahlberg set the record straight. “People always ask me how close is Entourage to the real life and the real crew and I’ve said I think the relationship in Four Brothers with the four guys is closer to my real life with my real friends and our real relationship. It’s pretty relentless. Guys are pretty harsh on one another.”

Some of the best inside Hollywood moments from the series come from his surroundings. “It’s interwoven with other people’s real lives and stuff that’s been going on. People that I worked with, people that I know in the business. That’s what’s so amazing to me. People in the business are so obsessed with the show because they know who’s who and what’s what. So it’s pretty exciting. To me it’s really exciting to see how the show has taken off and how many people come up to me and say how much they like the show. I’ve never had that happen to me with any movie I’ve been in.”

Four Brothers opens August 12.