‘Very Religious’ Mark Wahlberg Says It Was Okay to Make ‘Ted’ Because God Has Sense of Humor
Won’t the folks at Mass be mad when they see Mark Wahlberg starring as the villain with the ridiculous hairline in Mel Gibson’s Flight Risk? The despicable role doesn’t exactly reflect the actor’s Catholic values. “Being a very religious guy too, I’ve always said, whether it be Ted or this movie or anything else, that God’s a fan of movies and has a sense of humor,” Wahlberg told PEOPLE.
Wahlberg is the kind of serious Catholic who shows up for Today Show interviews with an Ash Wednesday cross still smudged on his forehead. If you believe the Philadelphia Inquirer, Wahlberg attends Mass every day and twice on Sundays. So it has always seemed incongruous that the actor’s most famous roles are Boogie Night’s Dirk Diggler and John, the best pal of a foul-mouthed, cross-species sex fiend in Ted.
And, in fact, Ted has caused Wahlberg conflicted feelings in the past. In 2015, Wahlberg was the master of ceremonies at an event featuring Pope Francis. Fourteen-year-old Bobby Hill of the Keystone State Boychoir belted out an opera solo for the Supreme Pontiff and after the kid was done, “he whispered in my ear that he liked the movie Ted,” Wahlberg said. “I told him that was not appropriate for his age.”
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“Holy Father, please forgive me,” Wahlberg asked the Pope in a public mea culpa for the sins of Ted. “I’ve always hoped that the good Lord has a sense of humor when it comes and pertains to many of the movies that I’ve made.”
Despite his apology to the Pope, Wahlberg had no problems signing up to make “sophomoric, scatological” Ted 2. The actor will be forgiven because he’s just repeating what Seth MacFarlane tells him to say. “Here’s the great thing, I’m an actor for hire, and Seth is the writer and director and the voice of the bear. He takes full responsibility, and he’s never been one to tone anything down,” Wahlberg told Uproxx. “Seth is not one to censor himself.”
So the actor-for-hire will say anything that Macfarlane told him to? “I just tell him that I’m not saying anything offensive about religion,” Wahlberg clarified. “If you want Ted to say whatever Ted wants to say, that’s up to you.”
And that’s the Gospel according to Mark (Wahlberg). His cinephile God has a sense of humor about all of Ted’s plot lines — doing drugs, sexually harassing women, getting busy with sex workers, spewing homophobic rants and affecting racist accents. Just leave out the jokes about the sins of Catholic priests and He’s all good.
