Actors often push the limits of their physical capabilities in the thrilling world of Hollywood in order to bring a character to life.

Mark Wahlberg, the multi-talented actor renowned for portraying a wide variety of characters, demonstrated his unwavering dedication with his part in the critically acclaimed 2010 film, The Fighter.

But do know that Wahlberg, who is renowned for his commitment and penchant for thorough preparation, even outperformed professional fighters in his preparation for this iconic role.

Yes, we have all heard stories of actors who went above and beyond for their roles, striving for the pinnacle of perfection. But have you ever heard of an actor, spending five years perfecting their craft in a boxing ring to catch the perfect moment?
Mark Wahlberg in The Fighter
Of course not, but we can count on Mark Wahlberg, especially for this David O. Russell’s 2010 film.

Mark Wahlberg Unleashed His Inner Fighter

Mark Wahlberg is unquestionably the personification of perfection. He even left professional fighters in the dust, thanks to his level of perfection and years of training. After the shoots, professional fighters would not even get out of bed, whereas the 52-year-old actor was said to be actively running around the set.

The Fighter, which made $129 million worldwide, is a biography of the great boxer Micky Ward. Wahlberg, who was also the film’s producer, invested a lot of time in the production and trained for years to replicate the legendary fights of Ward.

In an interview with Yahoo Entertainment, Wahlberg explained:

“Everyone thought [that] was impossible. But [I had] years of training and preparation, and I basically convinced everyone that the way to do it is to just film it like they film any fight on HBO.”
Mark Wahlberg
He was successful in pursuing the idea he was adamant about from the beginning, despite the opposition he encountered. What was astounding, however, was that none of the professional fighters were able to keep up with the 12-hour nonstop shoots.
“We did each fight 12 hours a day and thankfully I was in the condition I was because even the pro fighters that we had were not used to that.

If you got a 12-round fight with a minute in between rounds, that’s not a long time. And you got eight weeks, 12 weeks of training camp, but you’re not doing it for 12 hours a day. And the next day they couldn’t get out of bed.” 
He Lost $500,000 To Star in The Fighter?

David O. Russell‘s film, The Fighter, starring Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg, was a commercially successful movie.

Christian Bale even won his first Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, and the movie more than made up for its cost at the box office. However, Wahlberg revealed that he actually lost more money than he had made by playing the lead role in the highly regarded movie.

The film reportedly cost the Ted actor a lot of money to appear in The Fighter. He spent more money in the end than he made, in fact. He believed that this film needed to stand out from other boxing movies. That required a level of authenticity that perhaps other movies of a similar nature did not have.

The Uncharted actor told Sports Illustrated:
“There are many, many boxing movies, and I love most of them. But I knew that the thing that would set us apart was if the fights looked more real, and I looked more like a boxer than anyone else who’s done it in the past.” 
Mark Wahlberg
But it took a lot of money to achieve this authenticity.
“I spent more money paying my trainers and having them travel with me than I got paid, by a good half a million dollars.” 
It makes sense why Wahlberg did not appear overly upset despite losing so much money. Because he found the experience to be so enjoyable that he even thought about creating a sequel. Well, he is already in good enough shape to fight again.