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Mark Wahlberg at the "Transformers: Age of Extinction" premiere
Mark Wahlberg had fun playing Cade Yeager in Transformers: Age of Extinction not only because of all the fighting robots onscreen, but because a particularly familiar face on set.
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"I had worked with Michael Bay on Pain and Gain, we had a blast," Wahlberg said in a CBS This Morning segment that aired Tuesday. "The only thing that I was concerned about, because a movie of this size normally, the character stuff kind of gets bogged down."
Wahlberg also noted that he had to lost 60 pounds for his next role in The Gambler — which he did by "jumping rope every day for about two hours" and sticking to a strict liquid diet and exercise regimen — but then needed to reshoot scenes for Transformers. "I remember seeing [Bay] at his house, he had a housewarming party, and it was the last day of shooting with The Gambler. And he was so upset and he was so freaked out," Wahlberg laughed. "He was like, 'What happened to you, dude?! You look like crap. Fix this!'"
Wahlberg described Cade as "an ordinary guy" who is "forced to do extraordinary things just to keep his daughter alive, and people can certainly identify with that and root for him," adding that his character is also sarcastic and witty. Still he noted that as a father of four in real life, he's much more protective.
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"I don't plan on ever letting my daughters date!" Wahlberg said. "I'm going to try to do everything I can to prevent it. You know, it just terrifies me. It just terrifies me." He recalled what he was like before he himself became a father: actor, rapper, model, high-school dropout and convict for assaulting a man on the street. The jail time triggered a certain work ethic, he said.
"I said to myself, no matter what I was going to do, I was gonna make an honest living. I was gonna do something that I could be proud of and I could make my parents proud," he explained, later adding, "Once I got a second chance, I was never gonna do anything to mess it up. And I feel so fortunate to do what I do. It's only right that I give it my all and I respect what I do and the people that I work with. I'm gonna deliver for them. People are taking chances on me. I make sure that I deliver."
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