-My first guest is an Oscar-
and Emmy-nominated actor
who stars in the new movie "Joe Bell,"
which is in theaters July 23rd.
Please welcome Mark Wahlberg.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Hey, hey, hey!
That's what I'm talking about.
Welcome, buddy. -Hey.
It's so crazy doing this like this.
-It's -- It's wild. It's bizarre.
But we have a full audience now, so we're baby steps.
We're coming back, buddy. [ Cheers and applause ]
-I can't -- I cannot --
Cannot wait to come back and visit in person.
-Yeah, me, too. I know you're back in L.A.,
safe with the kids.
How is the family doing? Everyone good?
-Uh, yeah. Everybody's hanging in there.
It's been tough with COVID and Zooms.
And now that school's over, I don't see kids usually
till about 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon.
They start waking up, and then they don't really
come out until they're done playing their video games.
They're looking for food or looking for Taki chips.
-Takis. -Yeah, they love the Takis.
-Oh, yeah, who doesn't love the Takis?
It is a big thing. -I mention that now.
Boxes are gonna show up. -I know! Exactly right.
-It's a bad idea. -You must have had some Takis
on this last movie that you just wrapped,
which, hopefully, you'll come back, we'll talk about.
I think it's called "Stu," right now.
-Yeah. -It's about --
Is it about a boxer turned priest, or...?
Well, we'll get into it. -Yeah, it's a true story.
He was a boxer.
He tried to become an actor. He fell in love.
And in order to kind of win the girl over,
he wanted to get baptized,
and then he had this horrific accident.
And then he wanted to go -- Once he got baptized,
he wanted to go all the way, and he became a priest.
It's a true story.
-This is a picture of you filming the movie, right?
-Yep. That's as a boxer.
-Yeah, and then three weeks later,
and this is not -- I'm not making this up.
Three weeks later, this is a picture of Mark.
[ Laughter ] -Yeah.
-Dude, how? I mean, how is that possible?
-It's the mustache.
[ Laughter ] It's the mustache.
-That's what did it? It looks --
-Unfortunately, I had to consume for two weeks 7,000 calories,
and then for another two weeks, 11,000 calories.
And it was fun for about an hour.
And then -- You know, it's just such a --
It's such a physical -- a hard, physical thing to do.
I mean, losing weight, you just kind of tough it out,
you just don't eat and exercise.
And this, even when you're full,
I would wake up after a meal and have another meal.
I was eating every three hours.
It was, uh, not fun.
-Is it harder to do?
'Cause -- By the way, happy belated birthday.
You just turned 50. [ Cheers and applause ]
-Yeah. Thank you, man.
-He looks like he's 25.
Is it harder to do the older you get, to gain and lose weight?
-Yeah, absolutely. You know, once the metabolism
starts to slows down, it gets really difficult.
But, you know, it was something that --
I'd been trying to get this movie made for six years.
We only had 30 days to shoot it.
And so, I wanted to really make it happen.
And we're also crazy enough
to have financed a lot of it myself.
So, I knew I was on a ticking clock, on my own dime.
And, you know, you get things done pretty quickly
when that's the case. -Yeah.
Let's talk about your movie, "Joe Bell."
This is cool that you did this.
This is another true story -- based on a true story.
-Yep. -Can you set up the film
for everyone? -Yeah, well, it's --
I don't want to give away everything,
but a dad is basically going on a journey
from La Grande, Oregon, to New York City,
where his son always wanted to live.
And he's talking to anybody and everybody that he can meet,
people that he confronts about intolerance and bullying.
And -- Yeah, he's trying to raise awareness for his son.
-It's an amazing story. It's almost hard to believe.
But how did you find out about this?
-Actually, somebody sent me the script.
And I read it, and I obviously was very moved by it.
And then, I had realized that I had seen somewhere,
I think, on the news about Joe's journey.
But I didn't really -- It didn't really register.
And then, of course, I went up to La Grande
to visit with Lola and Joseph, with their family.
And I was immediately committed to making the movie.
I just felt like, you know, as a parent, of course, you know,
it's such an important story to be told.
-You know -- I think you rethink everything once you have kids,
especially when it comes to bullying and stuff.
-Yeah, absolutely.
-Did you read this as an actor or as a dad?
-I read it as a dad. I read it as a dad.
And then I cast it as a dad.
You know, we put the whole movie together based on that feeling.
And we actually cast an amazing young actor, Reid Miller.
-Oh, he's great. -Who, when he came into
the room -- we auditioned here at my house --
I mean, he had a lot of similar mannerisms to my --
to both of my boys.
And so, I just immediately felt like it was him.
And, of course, going through the process,
there was a lot of other wonderful actors coming through.
But I always, you know, just gravitated towards Reid.
-I want to show everyone a clip.
Here's Mark Wahlberg in "Joe Bell."
Take a look at this.
-♪ You're beautiful in your way ♪
♪ 'Cause God makes no mistakes ♪ ♪ I'm on the right track -- ♪
-♪ ...track, baby, I was born this way ♪
-What? -Well, don't look so surprised.
-Excuse me. I didn't know you knew the words.
-Well, you blast that so loud, you think I didn't pick up
a thing or two downstairs? -Wow, okay.
-I'm on one of them -- What do you call them?
♪ I'm a monster ♪ ♪ I'm a monster ♪
-Okay. -All right --
-Yeah. -Excuse me.
It's "A little monster," to be correct.
-A little monster? -Yeah.
-You know what? All right, even I'll admit it.
Okay? It's a little catchy. -Yes, it is.
-"Don't hide yourself in regret.
Just love yourself and you're set."
♪ I'm on the right track, baby ♪
♪ I was born this way ♪ -All right.
-We're not doing that again.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Hey, hey! You're a good man, buddy.
Always good to see you. Mark Wahlberg.
"Joe Bell" is in theaters July 23rd.