The late actress-director cast a young Wahlberg in one of his first movies, 1994’s “Renaissance Man.”

Mark Wahlberg remembers Penny Marshall’s career-changing advice: ‘This white rapper thing isn’t working’

The late actress-director cast a young Wahlberg in one of his first movies, 1994's "Renaissance Man."

By Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt is a writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2024. Her work has previously appeared on Yahoo and in American *Journalism Review* and *The Shreveport Times*.

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April 28, 2026 6:06 p.m. ET

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Penny Marshall and Mark Wahlberg in 2000. Credit:

Bei/Shutterstock

- Mark Wahlberg is looking back on how late actor-director Penny Marshall, whom he encountered when he appeared in her 1994 *Renaissance Man*, affected his career.

- Wahlberg says Marshall told him he was destined to be an actor because he was already playing a rapper.

- She let Wahlberg stay with her in L.A. while he was working on the transition from model/musician to actor.

There's a reason "Good Vibrations" rapper Marky Mark cut loose from the Funky Bunch and became two-time Oscar nominee Mark Wahlberg. And it had everything to do with late actress and director Penny Marshall.

Wahlberg looked back on encountering Marshall, who died in 2018, when she cast him in her 1994 comedy *Renaissance Man*, during an interview this week on SiriusXM's Comedy Greats channel.

"When I walked in there, she was like, 'You're an actor,'" Wahlberg said she told him. "'This white rapper thing is not working.' She was like, 'You're acting like a rapper. But you're acting. So why don't you just try this?' And the next thing you know, I went from just wanting to say hello to, I read for eight different characters, cold reading that day. And then I flew myself out to L.A., and then I stayed with her, and then we went through the whole kind of prep process. Then I tested."

Mark Wahlberg in 1991. Tim Roney/Getty Images

After all, Marshall, who acted before helming movies such as *Big* (1988) and *A League of Their Own *(1992), knew a natural when she saw one.

Her comedy movie, which starred Danny DeVito and Gregory Hines, was one of Wahlberg's first acting credits. At that point, he was known more for, as Alicia Silverstone's Cher Horowitz says in *Clueless*, "his busy pants-dropping schedule."

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Wahlberg said he'd also been encouraged to act by the person directing his music videos, Scott Kalvert. The same man also directed *The Basketball Diaries*, Wahlberg's 1995 movie with a young Leonardo DiCaprio.

By the time he was up for a part in the 1996 movie *Fear*, in which he played a boyfriend terrorizing Reese Witherspoon and her family, he said director James Foley demanded that he play the main role.

The star of films including *Boogie Nights* and *The Other Guys* said that he hadn't considered acting before Marshall's advice for him.

Mark Wahlberg's tribute to Penny Marshall.

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It's no wonder Wahlberg's love for her has continued over the years.

Following her death, he shared a tribute: "Rest in peace, Penny. Such a wonderful, funny and talented lady. Without her support and encouragement, I would not be where I am today. She will be missed."

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