There have been a lot of issues that can be deemed as problematic with a young Mark Wahlberg but with time, age, and exposure, the Pain & Gain actor has turned his life around, focusing on things that are a far throw from his troubled childhood riddled with arrests, imprisonment, and one very specific case of putrid racism.

Now, his numerous charitable donations and youth foundations have been a way to repent for the sins of his past and a way to change things for the better, and yet, no matter the number of good deeds Wahlberg clocks in during his waking hours, one old legacy when it comes to his career in the industry can never be erased from his invariable past. 

Boogie Nights (cast photo)

Mark Wahlberg Comments On His Legendary Prosthetic P*nis

Boogie Nights was one of the first films that helped propel Mark Wahlberg to the upper strata of Hollywood fame and demand.

The ensemble affair that helped launch the former hip-hop rapper’s career in cinema navigated the exploding adult film industry of the 70s and 80s and bagged two Academy Award nominations for the brilliant performances of Julianne Moore and Burt Reynolds.

Mark Wahlberg in Boogie Nights

However, given the film was one of the only few projects that so explicitly and colorfully dived into the adult entertainment scenario, the recognition that it received was exponential, helping contribute to Wahlberg’s rapid rise in the pop-culture scenario in Hollywood soon after.

In an interview with Ellen on her talk show, when asked about his iconic prosthetic p*nis from the film, the Oscar-nominated actor claimed:

“Yes, yes. It’s in a safe locked away. It’s not something I could leave out. All of a sudden my kids are looking for a spare phone charger and pull that thing out and go, ‘What the heck is this?!’ It wouldn’t be a good look.”

In the movie, Mark Wahlberg portrays Eddie Adams, a nightclub dishwasher working in the Los Angeles scene who bursts into the limelight after stepping into the p*rn industry and taking on the stage name “Dirk Diggler” for his famously large appendage.

The Pop-Culture Significance of Anderson’s Boogie Nights

History is selective in the sense that it chooses to retain the gory past of the defeated and the villains and the altruistic glory of the victors.

The vile in-betweens that reside in the gaps in history’s pages are often forgotten or redacted from the collective consciousness.

Boogie Nights captures the sensational phenomenon that caused a watershed moment in the socio-political history of the US by bringing the adult film industry out of their imposed exile and into the fringes of publicity.

Boogie Nights (1997)

Written by Paul Thomas Anderson and starring a fraternity of A-listers in its frames, Boogie Nights was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Original Screenplay category.

Besides Burt Reynolds and Julianne Moore, Mark Wahlberg was joined by William H. Macy, Don Cheadle, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Heather Graham, and John C. Reilly.