Viewers of this year’s SAG Awards are outraged that Mark Wahlberg presented the win for Everything Everywhere All at Once.
The ensemble of A24’s hit movie received the award for best cast in a motion picture on Sunday night. And while actor James Hong praised his acceptance into Hollywood, several viewers criticized the host, Mark Wahlberg.
Now, we all know Mark Wahlberg for being one of Hollywood’s most prolific actors. He’s risen to levels of unprecedented fame since his first acting job in 1994.
Alongside acting, Wahlberg is also a producer and businessman, and he received a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame back in 2010. So, there’s no denying he’s had an extremely successful professional life.
But behind the scenes, things haven’t always been so seemingly perfect…
In fact, the actor is certainly no stranger to controversy. As a teenager, Wahlberg, who comes from a family of 9 siblings, dropped out of high school and quickly became embroiled in a life of crime.
By the age of thirteen, he was addicted to drugs. He got himself involved in drug dealing, stealing, and all-around violent behavior which would eventually lead to him serving time in prison at the age of sixteen.
He’s certainly led a very interesting life. But sadly, the actor was caught up in some pretty bad antics as a teenager and a young man.
While living in Boston in the 1980s, Wahlberg was twice charged with race-related hate crimes, serving time in jail for one of the attacks.
In 2014, the actor attempted to seek pardon for one of the attacks and have it wiped from his criminal record, saying that his celebrity status should “in no way, shape or form” be a reason to grant it.
He hoped his recent actions would show that he had changed.
“I am deeply sorry for the actions that I took on the night of April 8th, 1988, as well as for any lasting damage that I may have caused the victims.
“Since that time, I have dedicated myself to becoming a better person and citizen so that I can be a role model to my children and others,” he wrote in his pardon application.
He later dropped this request in 2016 and in a 2020 interview with The Guardian, he explained that he had “done the work” to make things right.
“I took it upon myself to own up to my mistakes and go against the grain and not be a part of the gang anymore – to say that I was going to go and do my own thing,” he explained.
“[It] made it ten times more difficult to walk from my home to the train station, to go to school, to go to work.
“But I also prided myself on doing the right thing and turning my life around… I would hope that people would be able to get a second chance in life.”
Unfortunately, Walberg became embroiled in yet another scandal during this week’s SAG Awards.
It all started when Wahlberg was chosen to emcee the award ceremony for the cast of Everything Everywhere All at Once, which is primarily Asian.
“I gotta say, having Mark Wahlberg, who literally went to jail as a teen for committing a hate crime against a Vietnamese man, present an award to the cast of Everything Everywhere All At Once was certainly a choice,” one viewer wrote on Twitter.
Another echoed: “They really had Mark Wahlberg whom got arrested for beating up a Vietnamese man a long time ago present best ensemble to an film with a lot of Chinese American actors in it.”
“Friendly reminder that Mark Wahlberg violently attacked two Vietnamese men and I think it is quite obtuse that he was the one to announce Everything Everywhere All At Once as the winner of the SAG award tonight,” a third added.
What do you think?
