You know that saying, ‘Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me’ … well, in Hollywood, where reputation and success are everything, you could easily argue the mantra for talent should be ‘Turn me down once, shame on you. Turn me down twice …’
Enter Mark Wahlberg, who may be trolling for a role in director JJ Abrams upcoming film, some project tentatively titled Star Wars: Episode VII, after turning down a role in Abrams forthcoming sequel, Star Trek Into Darkness.
In an article posted at Blastr.com, Wahlberg, who recently signed on for the next Transformers movie, revealed that he turned down the opportunity to play James T. Kirk’s father in the 2009 Star Trek film.
“I tried to read the script. I couldn’t … I didn’t understand the words or the dialogue or anything,” Wahlberg said while promoting his new film, Broken City. “I said ‘I couldn’t do this. I think you’re really talented, but I couldn’t do it.’ And then I saw the movie and I was like ‘Holy s$@#, he did a great job.’ ”
According to the post, Wahlberg was asked what he thought about Abrams taking the helm of the new Star Wars film … which naturally leads to the next question: If he asked you to be in Episode VII, would you do it?
“I probably wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to work with J.J. again, so if he wanted me to do something that I couldn’t fully understand, I would probably give it a shot,” he said.
Now, actors trolling for roles, especially in Episode VII, is an almost daily occurrence on social media outlets these days. But this is an interesting prospect given that Wahlberg still has some serious box office cred. He’d be an interesting Talon Karrde, don’t you think?
Or maybe an interesting Imperial warlord.
Hmmm ….
Wayne Chamberlain is the co-host of the Star Wars Book Report podcast, available on iTunes, and a contributing writer with Postmedia News and Canada.com.