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It turns out that Mark Wahlberg’s infamous fantasy of being able to stop 9/11 if he was on American Airlines Flight 11 (one of the planes that attacked the World Trade Center) was somewhat the fault of genetics — Wahlberg controversially said “It wouldn’t have went down like it did” — as it turns out his mother Alma has a penchant for embellishment, too.
During a recent interview to promote his new film The Union, the Academy Award-nominated movie star recalled a time when his mother believed that Oscar winner, and famously one of the most handsome men in the world, George Clooney was flirting with her and wanted to go out with her.
Clooney and Wahlberg starred together in the 2000 disaster drama film The Perfect Storm, which was directed by Wolfgang Petersen and also starred Diane Lane, William Fichtner, Karen Allen, Bob Gunton, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and John C. Reilly. The duo also starred together in the 1999 David O. Russell-directed movie Three Kings.
“My mom [Alma Wahlberg] came to the set and met George and got a picture, and she had it on her wall,” Wahlberg said in an interview with Variety. “I think she liked that picture more than she liked the picture of her own kids.”
“[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,’” Wahlberg recalled, mimicking his mother’s voice.
“But yeah, she was convinced that he was, like, hitting on her. I said, ‘I don’t know about that, Mom.’”
Wahlberg has recently been out on the promotional trail for his new Netflix action comedy The Union, which he co-stars in alongside Academy Award winner Halle Berry. Wahlberg will also be starring in October’s Flight Risk, a plane-set action thriller directed by Mel Gibson.
Wahlberg also has two movies set to release in 2025: Play Dirty, from acclaimed Lethal Weapon writer and The Nice Guys director Shane Black, and the Petter Farrelly comedy Balls Up.