Mark Wahlberg is happy with his latest film. The Mile 22 actor-producer opened up to Us Weekly exclusively at the premiere of the action film on Thursday, August 9, and revealed that being surrounded by strong women on set was part of what made for a great experience.
“For [director] Peter [Berg] and I, this is our idea of a good time, just going out and having fun. Boys being boys — with some badass girls,” the 47-year-old actor gushed to Us. “We had a long run with some really serious movies based off of real-life tragedies, and those films were important to us, but they can be difficult, for many reasons, and obviously the most important thing is getting it right and honoring the people that were affected by these tragedies, but we wanted to switch it up a little bit.”
And the action-adventure motion picture — which follows a CIA team who must “retrieve and transport an asset who holds life-threatening information,” according to Rotten Tomatoes — definitely stars some of Hollywood’s fiercest females.
Ronda Rousey, for one, portrays Sam Snow. She also opened up to Us at the premiere about her character.
“Sam is part of the ground branch and she is not so much a hand-to-hand fighter as she is a tactical gun fighter, she’s the type of person who would be able to survive Navy Seal camp but also graduate M.I.T.,” the 31-year-old professional wrestler told Us. “She’s a powerful asset for the country, that no one knows about.”
As for getting mentally and physically prepared for the role, Rousey tells Us that she’s “not doing a super strict diet and not following a crazy workout plan,” therefore she can “listen to my body.” She added that “being an athlete teaches you to be in tune with your body.”
Mile 22 also stars Lauren Cohan as Alice Kerr, and is set to hit theaters on Friday, August 17.
With reporting by Marisa Sullivan.
