LOS ANGELES — If Mark Wahlberg could do it all over again, would he appear in so many movie remakes?
The answer is a qualified yes. Although criticism of his remakes has sometimes been harsh, Wahlberg said the roles allowed him to work with some of his favorite directors.
"In a perfect world, it would be something original and a part I haven't played before. You know, get to stretch as someone else," he said.
"I always say I revisit familiar territory as far as the parts that I play, and you know, it's all kind of the same stories. There's only seven or eight stories to tell, going back to Shakespeare. We just try to find new and original ways to do it," said Wahlberg, who turns 32 on June 5.
In his third retelling of a classic film in as many years, the former rapper has taken over the driver's seat from Michael Caine for an update of the 1969 car-chase caper "The Italian Job."
In 2001, Wahlberg supplanted Charlton Heston's simian-hating spaceman in director Tim Burton's remake of "Planet of the Apes." And last year, Wahlberg slipped into Cary Grant's sneaky stranger from 1963's "Charade," redone as filmmaker Jonathan Demme's "The Truth About Charlie."
Director F. Gary Gray acknowledged the pressure of living up to the original version of "The Italian Job." Caine played the ringleader of a plan to swipe a load of gold by staging a massive traffic jam and then escape in tiny Mini Cooper cars.
The 1969 film remains a critical and cult favorite in Europe. Gray described it as "their equivalent of our 'Godfather.' "
The original is lesser known in the United States, which Wahlberg said was key to his involvement. "If this movie had been popular here, I would have had a really tough time doing it."
The new version takes place mainly in California. The Minis are used in a sewer pipe chase that empties into the Los Angeles river. Edward Norton co-stars as a thief who betrays Wahlberg's crew and steals their stolen loot.
While many youthful fans of Wahlberg's movies may not have seen the original films, the reverse can also be true. When Heston, then 76, was asked two years ago about the remake of 1968's "Planet of the Apes," he said he'd never seen any of Wahlberg's work.
Heston, whose signature role in 1959's "Ben-Hur" was a remake of a remake — there were two silent movies, in 1925 and 1907 — said Wahlberg did not seek any advice from him.
"He did not, and I would be surprised if he did," Heston said, "because I wouldn't."
Gray said Wahlberg has a loose acting style that separates him from his predecessors. "He does go by instinct, and that's where I think you get a lot of spontaneity," the director said.
Wahlberg, the youngest of nine children from the Dorchester section of Boston, was known in the late 1980s as the younger brother of New Kids on the Block singer Donnie Wahlberg. Mark dropped out of high school and spent 45 days in jail for assault and battery at age 16 before becoming a star in 1991 as rapper Marky Mark with the hit single "Good Vibrations."
With his group the Funky Bunch, Wahlberg presented a thuggish, hyper-sexual image onstage, often stripping down to his boxers to display his muscled physique.
That won over a lot of female fans, as did subsequent underwear ads for Calvin Klein. But he found broader success by dumping the Marky Mark moniker and breaking into acting with films such as "Renaissance Man" (1994), "The Basketball Diaries" (1995) and "Fear" (1996).
While Wahlberg has sometimes received brutal criticism for redoing roles of iconic actors, critics have been impressed by his original work. He received high marks for playing a naive porn star in 1997's "Boogie Nights," a weary, gold-hunting American soldier in the 1999 war satire "Three Kings" and a doomed, lovelorn fisherman in 2000's "The Perfect Storm." His next two projects are "I Love Huckabee's," in which he plays a bike-riding fireman, and an as-yet-untitled psychological drama in which he plays a wounded soldier tormented by his doctors.
"I would definitely like to do something as original as possible every time," Wahlberg said.
Now Donnie Wahlberg is following in his kid brother's footsteps, starring in the NBC drama "Boomtown." The two had a falling out over money during their days as musicians, Mark Wahlberg said, but they've patched up the relationship. That has made them cautious about working together again, but they haven't completely ruled it out.
Wahlberg said he has mellowed from the frenetic Marky Mark — thanks mainly to the "therapeutic" work of movies and his passion for golf. "What was weird was I was always having recurring nightmares, and now I dream about golf," he said. "Like, hole-in-one."
Wahlberg said he's also a devout Roman Catholic. During a dinner interview at the Polo Lounge in Beverly Hills, Wahlberg says a silent blessing over his red wine, tortilla soup and chicken pasta before digging in.
"I strayed away for a while, as a kid. Yeah, got into a lot of trouble. And like a lot of people in trouble, I found God," he said. "But I didn't find God to get out of trouble and then forget about it."
Wahlberg is also set to become a daddy. He has a daughter due in August with his longtime girlfriend, model Rhea Durham, and said his days as a party boy have been tamed.
"You can only do it for so long," he said. "It wears off. I mean, I had a lot of fun. I dragged it out longer than most people."