Mark Wahlberg Claims He Would’ve Been a 9/11 Action Hero
After a new interview with Men’s Journal, Mark Wahlberg is under fire for perhaps taking his own image as an action star a bit too seriously.
On September 11, 2001, the 40-year-old ‘Contraband’ actor was booked on American Airlines Flight 11, but changed his ticket at the last minute to attend the Toronto Film Festival. That plane, of course, was hijacked by terrorist mastermind Mohamed Atta, and became the first to crash into the World Trade Center that awful day.
When Men’s Journal asked him about his close brush with death, Wahlberg replied:
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.’”
After those remarks were posted on the magazine’s website Tuesday, the entire English-speaking world did a double-take and said, “Wait. What?”
It didn’t take long for Wahlberg to realize he’d made an enormous gaffe, and by Wednesday he issued a statement saying it was “ridiculous” that he’d speculated about the situation at all, adding:
To suggest I would have done anything differently than the passengers on that plane was irresponsible. I deeply apologize to the families of the victims that my answer came off as insensitive, it was certainly not my intention.”
No word on whether he would’ve told the terrorists to, “Say hi to your mother for me.”
[via Men's Journal]