"My new regimen consists of a bottle of red wine and a lot of food," the actor jokes, "and I'm enjoying myself, but my wife is, like, ‘You're starting to look really bad.'"
It has been a rare event when, as an adult, Mark Wahlberg has looked bad. And as The Fighter debuts on Friday in the US, it is looking very good with Oscar buzz and solid reviews working in its corner.
A troubled teenager who landed in jail, Wahlberg turned around his life as an entertainer, first as a rapper with Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, then as a Calvin Klein model when his rock-hard abdomen became the envy of both men and women.
He broke through the ranks of Hollywood actors in the 1990s.
Yet "The Fighter marks something new for the 39-year-old. It is a labour of love that he struggled to get made because, as much as anything, it was about a man — boxer "Irish" Micky Ward — with whom Wahlberg had much in common.
"I can't find a reason why I wouldn't be passionate about [the movie]," Wahlberg said. "And there are so many similarities between Micky's life and his journey and mine."
Ups-and-downs
The two grew up in the Boston area in families with nine children. Both were tough kids, and Wahlberg followed the career of Ward, who is about six years older than the actor.
The Fighter charts the ups-and-downs of Ward's boxing. He eventually became a welterweight champion and his three fights with Arturo Gatti are considered legendary.
But what has movie audiences raving are less the fights and more the tale of two brothers, Ward and older sibling Dickie Eklund, who was a strong fighter in his own heyday and the family's favourite son before turning to crack cocaine.
Micky Ward (Wahlberg) must overcome not just obstacles in the ring, but the overshadowing presence of Dickie (Christian Bale) and the overbearing management of his mother (Melissa Leo). He is confused by his family's eagerness to overlook Dickie's drug abuse, and his desire not to disappoint his mum by losing bouts eventually drives Micky from the ring.
Oscar watchers in Hollywood put Bale as a strong contender for a supporting actor Academy Award. Wahlberg, Leo, Amy Adams and the movie itself, all figure prominently in this year's race for Hollywood film honours.
