After rising to fame as a member of New Kids on the Block, Donnie Wahlberg has carved out a well established career as an actor. From his notable roles in The Sixth Sense and Dreamcatcher to the canceled-much-too-soon Boomtown and SAW IV, Donnie Wahlberg has proven himself to be a strong and reliable character actor away from the music industry.
In the March 31 episode of In Plain Sight, "Father Goes West", Donnie Wahlberg plays a Boston restaurant owner in the Witness Protection Program who's trying to lead a life without crime while attempting to keep his son and his new family from following in his past criminal footsteps.
Ahead of the season three return of In Plain Sight and "Father Goes West", we caught up with Donnie Wahlberg to find out how he was influenced by South Boston's notorious street life and how he and his acting brother Mark have grown over the years in Hollywood.
THE DEADBOLT: I loved the ski mask. That was pretty sweet.
DONNIE WAHLBERG: The ski mask? I couldn't keep it from blocking my eyes, but it worked out okay.
THE DEADBOLT: Growing up in Boston with guys like Whitey Bulger in the city, how easy is it for you to relate to that world?
WAHLBERG: I was never really around Whitey Bulger. He was a little bit before at least me and my brother, Mark's, time. He was a little bit out of the way by the time we really started, when we were out in the streets.
The thing is that Boston is such a small city that everybody knows everybody. So even if I never crossed paths with Whitey Bulger directly, I know a lot of people who did. I know a lot people who did their thing as well and basically do what they had to do to survive or made a choice to survive a certain way.
But there's always something to draw on. There's always someone that you could just pluck off the street, a friend, a cousin, an uncle or somebody who you could look at as a character study for a character like Jimmy. But the thing for me also is that whenever you play somebody who comes from your hometown, it's sort of a responsibility to not goof it up. Nobody wants to be that guy that is representing somebody built from a character or characters from Boston.
It may be the worst thing in the world to get it wrong and we take pride in people getting it right. So it adds a little pressure to it as well. It makes it easier in some aspects because I have a lot to draw on, but at the same time, it does put a great pressure because if I stink it up as a Boston guy, then I'm going to get a lot of flack when I come home.
THE DEADBOLT: Given the success that you and Mark had when you were young, what have you learned from each other now as men? It must be kind of unbelievable given the way you started.
WAHLBERG: I think we both, coming from the background that we come from and the life that we had, I think we're both very cautious. I think we both walk around with a fear of a self fulfilling prophecy that inevitably one day for two street kids coming from such a crazy family with so much chaos going on, eventually somebody is going to come and take this all away from us.
I think that fear is in both of us, the result is a great work ethic. I think it's the only way that we feel safe is to continue to work hard. I think we both have identified that hard work is really the only way to be successful and it's the only way to protect what we've worked so hard for is to continue to work hard.
I think the minute I sit back and think, yes, I am a great character actor and I can do this, that is the minute some other character actor who's working much harder than me is going to come in and take my opportunities away from me. I just think that fight, or that fear, I think it's in a lot of people who grow in really tough environments. We had to fight for food on the table with eight brothers and sisters.
I think in Hollywood, it's even harder. With every role, I'm fighting against hundreds and hundreds and thousands of other actors who want the same thing. It's amazing. On the one hand, we can say, yes, I have a pretty good body of work and I've done a lot of things and I continue to get opportunities, but on the other hand it's amazingly fortunate because there are so many actors who are out there fighting for the same things.
I know the minute I let up and don't work hard or I take anything for granted, there's a good chance it is going to go away for me, and desirably so. It's just my responsibility to build on the foundation that I have and to build something solid there. And the only way I can do that is with hard work. I know that Mark, while we don't really talk about it that much, I know he feels the same way.
-- Reg Seeton
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