Wahlberg blames reporter for taking 9/11 comments out of context
Mark Wahlberg has hit out at the magazine reporter who recently quizzed him about the 9/11 terrorist attacks because he only sat for the interview to promote his new movie.
The actor hit headlines on Wednesday (18Jan12) when an excerpt from his chat with the upcoming issue of Men's Health was released online, in which The Fighter star claimed he would have done more to overcome the terrorist hijackers who flew a plane into New York's Twin Towers.
He told the publication, "If I was on that plane with my kids, it
wouldn't have went down like it did. There would have been a lot of
blood in that first-class cabin and then me saying, 'OK, we're
going to land somewhere safely, don't worry.'"
Wahlberg, who had originally been booked on United Airlines Flight
175, one of the planes targetted by terrorists on September 11,
2001, was forced to issue an apology later on Wednesday, insisting
he did not mean to cause offense with his "ridiculous"
statements.
Now the actor is blaming the Men's Health writer for steering the
interview off-course and taking his 9/11 comments out of context as
he tried to promote Contraband.
Appearing on the Kidd Kraddick Radio Show on Friday (20Jan12), he
explained, "I don't go out doing publicity for movies or a magazine
cover talking about what's important to me. I want to promote the
movie and whatever questions they want to ask me I am more than
comfortable talking about. But it wasn't a Q&A (question and
answer) where it was the exact question and my exact response. It
was somebody's interpretation of it and you know... that's not OK
because I don't want people to be offended. I would never do
that."
Wahlberg was also uncomfortable with the sexual content included in
the interview.
He adds, "This guy is asking me about sexual questions and I'm
married and I have four kids, how inappropriate is that?"