Real-life father of four Mark Wahlberg plays a suburban dad in his new movie ‘The Family Plan’

Mark Wahlberg in 2023. PHOTO: GABE GINSBERG/GETTY

Mark Wahlberg has no problem growing older onscreen.

The 52-year-old star of The Family Plan told Entertainment Tonight in an interview published Thursday that he’s “embracing my old age.”

“I’m a dad now,” said the father of four — Ella, 20, Michael, 17, Brendan, 15 and Grace, 13, who he shares with wife Rhea Durham.

“A lot of guys my age in the business would probably say, ‘Well, that character has grown kids or kids in their late teens, I don’t want to play that role.’ I’m embracing that,” said the Oscar nominee.

In fact, he added, “I look forward to playing a grandfather soon.”

Mark Wahlberg and Iliana Norris in “The Family Plan”. APPLE TV+

Wahlberg stars opposite Michelle Monaghan in the action-comedy The Family Plan, which will premiere on Apple TV+ Dec. 15. The film, directed by Simon Cellan Jones and written by David Coggeshall, follows suburban dad and car salesman Dan Morgan (Wahlberg) whose illicit past as a top-level government assassin comes back to haunt him and disrupt family life.

An “impromptu cross-country road trip to Las Vegas” follows, per the film’s synopsis. “Determined to protect his family — while treating them to the vacation of a lifetime — Dan must put his long-dormant skills into action, without revealing his true identity.”

“I just thought it was really fun,” Wahlberg told ET of the film. “I think you see a lot of action movies — especially a lot of action comedies — and they don’t have as much character as this one had.”

That’s not to suggest The Family Plan skimps on the action, the former rapper continued. “We wanted to make it feel very real when shooting it practically,” he said of the movie’s most physical sequences. “You want it to feel super cool but also be grounded enough that it’s believable.”

“I promise you’ve never seen a baby do stunts like this before,” Jones joked to PEOPLE in November. A father of four just like Wahlberg, the director said he was inspired by this “story of a real, dysfunctional and slightly-stuck-in-a-rut family growing whole again. Super funny and relatable in the same package.”

“The Family Plan”. COURTESY OF APPLE

In June of this year following his 52nd birthday, Wahlberg reflected on the disciplined diet and workout routine that he’s known for, telling PEOPLE he’s “hitting his stride, health-wise.”

Of aging, he said, “I’m not ignorant to the fact that I’m definitely past the halfway point… For me, it’s all about mobility and flexibility. When you start getting older, you’re thinking about lung capacity, thinking about bone density, you know, being able to at least still develop new lean muscle. So those are things that I definitely think about.”

The Father Stu producer-star also revealed in a recent interview with Cigar Aficionado that he doubts that he’ll “be acting that much longer at the pace I am now.”

“Certain businesses, you kind of build them, pass them on or you exit,” he said. Of all his many endeavors, he added, on-camera acting was “the most difficult thing.”

Wahlberg will next star in the upcoming movies The Union, The Six Billion Dollar Man and Arthur the King.