‘Patriot's Day’ Star Mark Wahlberg Reveals Why The Boston Marathon Bombing Film Is So Important

Mark Wahlberg is quite proud to have taken part in the film “Patriot’s Day.”

The film is all about the horrific terror attack that took place back on April 15, 2013 during the Boston Marathon. In it, Wahlberg plays police Sgt. Tommy Saunders, who teams up with FBI Special Agent Richard DesLauriers (Kevin Bacon) and Commissioner Ed Davis (John Goodman) in tracking down the suspects of the attack.

When asked what drew him to the movie, Wahlberg told Entertainment Weekly that he found a deep connection with its message.

“Boston didn’t always have the best reputation, nor did I, growing up in Boston, as a kid with challenges and obstacles in front of me,” he said. “I was really inspired by the way people responded, and I wanted to tell that story. It’s never been more difficult or complicated for me to make a movie.”

Wahlberg’s character is fictional, and he explained that they needed to create a hero because 20 different people told different accounts of the story.

“A lot of law enforcement agencies finally found a way to work together, in the real situation, but there was obviously a lot of conflict,” he explained. “So imagine all the conflicts when making a movie and telling this story in two hours.”

Given the sensitivity of the movie, director Peter Berg told the Chicago Sun Times that they had to tread carefully in creating the new characters and reenacting the events.

They also had to make sure that everything happened based on the correct timeline, so they talked to the witnesses and survivors themselves.

“We had very casual, lengthy conversations, getting a sense of who these people were and what it was like in Boston, both prior to the bombing and now after the bombing,” he said. “Yes, there was pressure to get it right, but that also inspired me to work harder and be accurate in our portrayal of those events.”

“Patriot’s Day” was initially released on Dec. 21, 2016.