Tactical team
Wahlberg, Berg reunite for thrilling CIA tale ‘Mile 22’
LOS ANGELES — The action packed “Mile 22” (opening Friday) is a departure in a couple of ways for Mark Wahlberg.
This fourth film with director Peter Berg marks the first time they are skipping history to create a an explosive entertainment about an American CIA squad fighting for their lives in an unnamed Asian city.
For Wahlberg, 47, his squad leader James Silva is one guy far, far from his comfort zone.
The Dorchester native said, “For us, after making three films all based on real-life tragedies” — “Lone Survivor,” a Navy SEAL operation gone horribly wrong; “Deepwater Horizon,” about the record-breaking Gulf oil spill that left 11 dead; and “Patriots Day,” the hunt for the Boston Marathon terrorists — “it was important to do something that kind of falls under our idea of fun.
“This is our idea of a good time. It really is.”
Added Berg, “This is our idea of fun, but as we pushed deeper into the film, we learned more about the CIA’s ground branch and the men and women who work for that remarkable organization. That patriotic nature informs a lot of Mark’s and my work. We do respect and are very grateful for the men and women who work anonymously for our country.”
Silva is one lively, wired operative who speaks nonstop, nervously and perpetually pulling and popping an elastic wristband.
“What I needed was to figure out how I could stay as energetic and as lit as Jimmy Silva is all the time. I’m a pretty mellow guy,” Wahlberg said.
“Until I get really upset in real life, and that’s a whole other story. But to be lit like that the entire time, I resorted to drinking coffee, which I don’t drink in my life. Double shots of cappuccino like five times a day! I think the last time I drank coffee like that was on ‘Lone Survivor’ because when we went out to the mountain there was no bathroom. So I had to go before I went up or it was going to be a very uncomfortable day for me.”
Berg and Wahlberg return to nonfiction with their fifth film, “Wonderland” — a detective story set in present-day Boston — that begins filming locally next month.