Even Mark Wahlberg’s mom couldn’t resist falling for George Clooney.
“My mom [Alma Wahlberg] came to the set and met George and got a picture, and she had it on her wall. I think she liked that picture more than she liked the picture of her own kids,” Mark, 53, joked of his time working with Clooney on the 2000 film The Perfect Storm in a Variety interview published on Wednesday, August 21.
Mark recalled: “[She was like,] ‘Oh, he likes me a lot. He loves me a lot. He told me he wants to go out with me. I told him I couldn’t.’ But yeah, she was convinced that he was, like, hitting on her. I said, ‘I don’t know about that, Mom.’”
After his mother continued to protest that she and Clooney clicked during her set visit, Mark decided to play into her fantasies. “I said, ‘Well, f—k it, have a baby with him! I want a little brother. George can be my stepfather. It’s all good,’” he joked.
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Inspired by the non-fiction book of the same name by Sebastian Junger, Mark and Clooney portrayed Robert “Bobby” Shatford and Frank William “Billy” Tyne, Jr., in The Perfect Storm. The film follows the crew of the Andrea Gail, a commercial fishing boat off the coast of Gloucester, Massachusetts as it gets caught in the infamous Perfect Storm of 1991.
Mark told Variety that working with Clooney, director Wolfgang Petersen and the film’s cast and crew was an “amazing experience.” He added: “It was kind of centered around this tragic event, and I remember … spending time with the Shatford family and going fishing with my character’s brother and really trying to immerse myself in the world, but also, paying the kind of respect that I felt was necessary to the people and ensuring to them what our intentions were and that we were trying to make something that would honor their loved ones’ memory.”
Mark Wahlberg and George Clooney in ‘The Perfect Storm’ Warner Bros.
Mark is the youngest of his mother and father Donald Wahlberg Sr.’s nine children. Alma notably appeared alongside Mark, Donnie Wahlberg, Paul Wahlberg and more family members on the reality series Wahlburgers, which ran on A & E Network from 2014 to 2019. She died at age 78 in April 2021.
“My angel. Rest in peace,” Mark wrote alongside a photo of his mother via Instagram at the time.
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Donnie, 55, honored Alma by sharing a video montage of clips of the two of them from over the years via Instagram. “My mom Alma’s joy for life, love and people — combined with a pride in her humble beginnings and refusal to forget where she came from — undoubtedly shaped me into the man that I am,” he wrote in the post’s lengthy caption.
Mark Wahlberg and Alma Wahlberg Marc Andrew Deley/FilmMagic
Calling her “the epitome of the word grace,” Donnie concluded his tribute by writing, “I love you, miss you, thank you and will celebrate you, today and always. Forever — your Baby Donnie.”
Mark continued to honor his late mother via Instagram by including her in his Mother’s Day social media tribute earlier this year. “HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY🥰😘❤️🥳MISS YOU MOM💔LOVE YOU BABE❤️❤️❤️❤️ @byrheawahlberg ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️,” the Oscar nominee captioned photos of himself, his wife, Rhea Durham, and their kids with Alma on May 12. (The couple, who wed in 2009, share kids Ella, 20, Michael, 18, Brendan, 15, and Grace, 14.)