Mark Wahlberg: ‘I was not criticising Tom Cruise in soldier rant’

Mark Wahlberg has assured movie fans he was not talking about Tom Cruise when he criticised Hollywood stars who compare shooting war films to fighting in real combat zones. The Fighter star hit headlines last week (ends17Nov13) when he launched into an expletive-filled rant during a question-and-answer session at the AFI Fest film festival in Los Angeles to promote his new war movie Lone Survivor.
Wahlberg, who plays a Navy SEAL in the retelling of a real mission in Afghanistan, blasted other actors who claim their experiences playing soldiers onscreen is just as difficult as being in a real war, and many fans speculated he was referring to Hollywood icon Cruise.
He said, “For actors to sit there and talk about ‘Oh, I went to SEAL training’? I don’t give a f**k what you did. You don’t do what these guys did. For somebody to sit there and say my job was as difficult as being in the military? How f**king dare you, while you sit in a make-up chair for two hours.”
However, Wahlberg is adamant the rumour is not true, and he is sure Cruise would not hold such an ignorant opinion.
He tells Access Hollywood, “I was not talking about Tom Cruise. Somebody had mentioned to me as we were going up to talk that an actor had compared what we do to being in Afghanistan. I’ve been to Afghanistan and I’ve been acting for quite some time and that is a very unfair comparison, especially considering… what continues to happen to our men and women in the armed forces.
“Now, I know Tom Cruise wouldn’t think that, so maybe what he said was taken out of context, but I’ve always been a huge fan of Tom’s. When you’re making a movie, you spend a lot of time talking about ‘Oh, well I had to do this’ and ‘I had to do that’ and ‘I trained for 12 days’ and it’s nothing compared to what these guys go through. I mean, I’m guilty of talking extensively about – especially with The Fighter – how hard I worked. We don’t work hard compared to what those guys do. So, that was what I was saying and that’s certainly how I feel. And I know Tom, and I know that must be how he feels.”