by Sierra Marquina, Us Weekly

Don’t expect to get into a political debate with Mark
Wahlberg. The Patriots Day star
told Task & Purpose magazine he
stayed mum during the controversial 2016 election between
Donald Trumpand Hillary Clinton because he doesn’t think
celebrities should discuss politics.

“A lot of celebrities did, do, and shouldn’t [talk
politics],” he told the magazine, explaining that A-listers
aren’t on the same playing field as the common voter. “They might
buy your CD or watch your movie, but you don’t put food on their
table. You don’t pay their bills. A lot of Hollywood is living in
a bubble. They’re pretty out of touch with the common person, the
everyday guy out there providing for their family.”

However, despite his own major celebrity status, Wahlberg
considers himself to be in touch with the everyday man. “Me, I’m very aware of the real world. I come from the real
world, and I exist in the real world,” he said. “And although I
can navigate Hollywood, and I love the business and the
opportunities it’s afforded me, I also understand what it’s like
not to have all that.”

The actor grew up in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, the
youngest of nine children — one of his older siblings is New Kids
on the Block singer Donnie Wahlberg — and he has been vocal
about his past drug use and run-ins with the law. Prior to
bursting onto the music scene in the ’90s as the hunky rapper
Marky Mark, he worked as a bricklayer and suffered from cocaine
addiction by the age of 13.

“As soon as I began that life of crime, there was always a voice
in my head telling me I was going to end up in jail,” he told
biographer Matt Green, in The Amazing Life of Mark
Wahlberg, about being locked up. “Now I’d earned my stripes,
and I was just like them, and I realized it wasn’t what I wanted
at all. I’d ended up in the worst place I could possibly imagine,
and I never wanted to go back.”

Wahlberg, now a dad of four, credits his faith for getting
himself back on track.

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