FEELING THE LOVE
Wahlberg drawn to adoption tale ‘Instant Family’
NEW YORK — For Mark Wahlberg, his feel-good adoption movie “Instant Family” rates as a welcome change of pace.
“Just to be able to sit on a couch on a soundstage, talking to people?” Wahlberg, 47, marveled. “Nobody beating the crap out of me? No explosions. Just talking?”
Since early September, he’s been in Boston filming the crime thriller “Wonderland.”
“The other day I got attacked by a German shepherd. I got run over by two cars — and this was all before lunch. So it’s nice to switch,” he said, adjusting an ice pack for his herniated disc.
“I just tweaked it a little bit, working the other day in the cold, not stretching out enough. I’ll be fine.”
“Instant Family” is inspired by the real-life experiences of Sean Anders, the writer-director of Wahlberg’s hit “Daddy’s Home” comedies, when he and his wife adopted three foster kids.
“Family” details how a childless couple, Pete (Wahlberg) and his wife, Ellie (Rose Byrne, “Neighbors”), adopt three sibling foster children who range from a tyke to a teen.
We see the regulations, setbacks, support groups and emotional extremes that creating a family involves.
“I committed before I saw the script,” Wahlberg said. That was due to an encounter he had: “At an adoption fair in Boston in Fenway Park, I came to give the kids a boost and I spoke with a 14-year-old boy. He was, ‘Nobody’s going to adopt me but I’m excited about my future’ and I’m, ‘Whoa!’
“Being a dad, I couldn’t help but be emotional. So I wanted to do this right away.”
Anders said, “A lot of people have negative ideas of who these kids are and that’s one reason I wanted to do the movie and change that. To be clear Pete is not me — it’s a fictional tale inspired by me and others.
“But I wanted the lead character to be a guy’s guy and I felt with Mark, who is an onscreen tough guy, seeing him getting emotionally invested over these kids would really resonate — and it does.”
For Wahlberg, it was even closer than that. “We were making ‘Daddy’s Home 2’ and I was constantly being called to referee disputes between my wife and (15-year-old) daughter. Next thing I knew, they were all in the script!”
(“Instant Family” opens Friday.)