Mark Wahlberg is nearly unrecognizable on the set of 'Flight Risk,' set to be released on Oct. 18.
Mark Wahlberg is known for his commitment to his roles, and his latest transformation is no different.
On Wednesday, the 53-year-old actor posted a shirtless photo on Instagram, showcasing a dramatic new look with the middle part of his hair shaved. "No bald cap for me😎😂 we go all in @flightriskmovie October 18th 🤬😳🤣," Wahlberg captioned the post, highlighting his commitment to authenticity for his upcoming movie.
The transformation is for the action thriller Flight Risk, directed by Mel Gibson. The film's first trailer, released on June 27, features Wahlberg as a balding pilot tasked with transporting an air marshal (Michelle Dockery) and a fugitive (Topher Grace) to a trial.
As they traverse the Alaskan wilderness, the air marshal and fugitive begin to suspect that Wahlberg's character is hiding something. In a tense moment, the pilot's baseball cap comes off, revealing that he's bald.
Wahlberg explained that his dedication to the role included shaving the top part of his head every day. "There was no bald cap. I shaved the middle and left the horseshoe around the sides. We just shaved it," he told People. "They would shave the top as close to the scalp as possible every day, obviously, because we didn’t have any stubble or anything. So I just hid it with a hat."
He added, "But the most priceless thing was seeing my wife's face when I took my hat off after getting the haircut for work that day."
Filming Flight Risk took 22 days, so Wahlberg only sported the shaved look for a few weeks. While Wahlberg’s wife, Rhea Durham, had quite the reaction to his temporary look, Wahlberg shared that his children found it amusing. "My kids -- my boys especially -- they loved the haircut," he told the magazine. "They got a lot of laughs out of that."
Wahlberg and Durham have four children: sons Michael and Brendan and daughters Ella and Grace.
This isn’t the first time Wahlberg has fully committed to a role. ET's Cassie DiLaura spoke to the actor in April 2022 ahead of the release of Father Stu, for which Wahlberg put on 30 pounds in six weeks to play Father Stuart Long, the real-life boxer-turned-priest.
"I had six weeks to put on about 30 pounds. I started with 7,000 calories for the first two weeks and then 11,000 calories for the final four weeks," Wahlberg said. "None of it was fun, except for the first meal was amazing, because I hadn't eaten anything up until that point. But after that, when you're already full and you have to eat again, and at my age it's just not a healthy thing to do, to try to put on that kind of weight in that amount of time."
After enjoying his first weight-gaining meal, the process quickly became tiresome and unenjoyable, especially given that he was literally drinking olive oil by the glass as part of his daily routine.
"I wasn't eating anything that you would think, 'Oh my God, I get to sit on the couch and eat ice cream and pizzas,'" he explained. "... I tried to do it in a healthy way. It was a dozen eggs and a dozen pieces of bacon, two baked potatoes, a Porterhouse steak, two bowls of white rice, and a glass of olive oil. The first two weeks were high proteins. The second two weeks were a lot of carbs. The last two weeks starches, and then sodium, just to kind of get as bloated as possible. So not a lot of fun."
Flight Risk is set to be released on Oct. 18.
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