Mark Wahlberg on Patriots Day: 'I needed to be a part of this'

As a Massachusetts native and seeing how hard his community was hit by the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, Mark Wahlberg says he knew he had to take on the responsibility of ensuring any theatrical telling of that story was handled the right way.

Wahlberg did have some initial hesitations about getting involved in his upcoming film Patriots Day, though, which he touched on during a recent SiriusXM Town Hall, ultimately explaining why he signed on.

“I’ve spoken many times about why I was reluctant at first,” he shared. “But eventually, I realized that I needed to be a part of this and I needed to be in front of this and make sure that it was handled with the respect and care in which it deserved.”

To tell the tragic, yet inspiring story, Wahlberg, who stars as Sgt. Tommy Saunders, tapped a familiar collaborator, Peter Berg. The duo had previously worked together on two films about real-life, high-stakes events: Lone Survivor and Deepwater Horizon.

“We wanted to be able to look at how it’s possible to pick up and move on if you’ve experienced something this horrible,” said Berg. “As rough as it is, as hard as that community got hit by these two cowards, the city really did respond with incredible love and compassion and community. And it was very heartwarming and that was a big reason why we wanted to tell this story.”

Patriots Day will have a limited release on Dec. 21, before going nationwide on Jan. 13.

Watch the clip above, and to hear the entire interview tune into SiriusXM EW Radio (ch. 105) on Dec. 22 at 2 p.m. ET.