Movies

Mark Wahlberg surprises his wife by going bald for Flight Risk: 'I just hid it with a hat'

See his shocking new look in the trailer for the film directed by Mel Gibson.

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Published on June 27, 2024 03:43PM EDT

Mark Wahlberg got into a bit of a hairy situation when he fully committed to his Flight Risk role.

The actor stars in the upcoming thriller directed by Mel Gibson about a pilot (Wahlberg) who transports an Air Marshal (Michelle Dockery) and a fugitive (Topher Grace) to trial. But as they cross the Alaskan wilderness, the pilot's real identity as a hired hitman (and lack of hair!) is revealed, and the flight becomes an all-out battle for survival as he tries to kill the fugitive to prevent him from testifying.

Mark Wahlberg in the trailer for Flight Risk.

For Wahlberg's transformation into a ruthless hitman, he rocks a partially bald head in the movie — and the actor decided to actually shave his head every day rather than mess with a bald cap during filming. The only problem? He didn't warn his wife Rhea Durham in advance about his new look.

"There was no bald cap," Wahlberg told PEOPLE. "I shaved the middle and left the horseshoe around the sides. We just shaved it. They would shave the top as close to the scalp as possible every day, obviously, because we didn't have any stubble or anything. So I just hid it with a hat. But the most priceless thing was seeing my wife's face when I took my hat off after getting the hair cut for work that day."

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Wahlberg and Durham, who have been married since 2009, share four kids: Ella, 20, Michael, 18, Brendan, 15 and Grace, 14. "Oh, they're gonna love it," Wahlberg says of his bald head. "My kids — my boys especially — they loved the hair cut. They got a lot of laughs out of that."

He had a partially shaved head for the 22 days of filming, and once filming wrapped, Wahlberg grew his hair out immediately. "For me, yeah, it's not fun," he added. "Hopefully I can just kind of become the character. Wearing a fake either a wig or mustache, I always feel like it feels ridiculous."

Watch the first trailer below to see Wahlberg's big reveal of his bald head.

Flight Risk flies into theaters Oct. 18.