Tom Cruise’s comparison of his acting job to that of the military did not sit well with Mark Wahlberg.

SUMMARY

Tom Cruise stated that working as an actor felt like “serving in Afghanistan”.
Mark Wahlberg slammed the Top Gun star for comparing his acting profession to the military.
Cruise’s lawyer released a statement defending the actor and claimed his word was taken out of context.

Tom Cruise may be one of the most prolific actors of this generation, but his statement about working in the acting industry vexed Mark Wahlberg. The latter played a Navy SEAL in his 2013 film, Lone Survivor, which is based on the 2005 mission ‘Operation Red Wings’, and Cruise’s comparison did not sit well with the actor.

Mark Wahlberg
The Mummy star previously commented that filming for movies and being away from his daughter felt like “serving in Afghanistan.” Not only Wahlberg, but other soldiers who went to war took serious issues with Cruise’s remark.

Mark Wahlberg Slammed Tom Cruise After He Compared Acting To Military

In a Q&A portion during the premiere of Mark Wahlberg’s Lone Survivor, the actor responded to the question regarding the difficulty of filming for the movie. He did not specifically mention Tom Cruise, but it was suggested that he was referring to the statement that Cruise previously said in one of his interviews (via Business Insider):
“For actors to sit there and talk about ‘Oh I went to SEAL training,’ and I slept on the — I don’t give a f—k what you did. You don’t do what these guys did. For somebody to sit there and say my job was as difficult as somebody in the military’s. How f—king dare you. While you sit in a makeup chair for two hours.”

Mark Wahlberg in Lone Survivor
Wahlberg went off and slammed the actor for proudly comparing his job to that of the military. He criticized how, at the end of filming, the Top Gun star would return to his usual comfortable life.
“I don’t give a s—t if you get you’re a— busted. You get to go home at the end of the day. You get to go to your hotel room. You get to order f—king chicken. Or your steak. Whatever the f—k it is.”
Whether Cruise’s testimony was a careless joke or a serious one, it definitely rubbed people the wrong way. As someone who has worked on a movie depicting real war events, Wahlberg would not take any words that discredit the sacrifices of the military.

Tom Cruise’s Lawyer Claimed Actor’s Statement Was Taken Out Of Context

Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible
After Mark Wahlberg fired back at Tom Cruise, the Mission: Impossible star’s lawyer Bert Fields came to his defense and released a statement via USA Today:
“The assertions that Tom Cruise likened making a movie to being at war in Afghanistan is a gross distortion of the record. What Tom said, laughingly, was that sometimes, ‘That’s what it feels like.’ ”
Cruise’s lawyer claimed that the actor supports the military and is in no way serious about comparing the difficulty of his job to the hardships that soldiers face every single day:
“Tom is a staunch supporter of our troops and would never say that making a movie was even remotely comparable to fighting in Afghanistan.”
On the other hand, Wahlberg made it clear that no matter how rigorous and demanding the acting profession is, making films and fighting wars are two different things that should not be compared in the same conversation.