Mark Wahlberg usually fights bad guys in movies. Now he’s facing another villain not to be taken lightly: teenage bullying. Deco’s Alex Miranda is here with the story of “Joe Bell.”
We’re used to seeing Marky Mark performing all those stunts, beating up some bad guys and crunching those abs, but his latest role is more challenging than any of that. In “Joe Bell,” he plays a father mourning the loss of his son.
This may be Mark Wahlberg like we’ve never seen him.
Mark Wahlberg (as Joe Bell): “There’s a lot of things I learned out here. Nobody but me for company.”
He stars in the biographical drama “Joe Bell,” based on a tragic true story. Mark plays a father who goes on a cross-country walk in honor of his son, who committed suicide after getting bullied at school for being gay.
Cassie Beck (Mrs. Swift): “What about therapy?”
Reid Miller (as Jadin Bell): “I don’t need therapy, they do.”
Mark Wahlberg: “This is a very, very important story that needs to be told and needs to be handled with the sensitivity and respect that it deserves.”
Reid Miller: “Hopefully, this story will save a life. If it saves one life, it’s done its job.”
Newcomer Reid Miller portrays Jadin Bell, who took his life at just 15 years old.
Reid Miller: “It was such a range of emotions. It was like – it was tears of sadness, it was tears of joy, it was anger. It was a lot of things, and it was a lot of things that I have felt in my life.”
Unfortunately, Reid says, he experienced bullying himself while growing up in a small town in Texas.
Reid Miller: “I get it way too well, that feeling of being alone, the feeling of being isolated. I feel that all that happened for a reason. It gave me the strength and the ability to play this, this part, and to tell Jadin’s story as authentically as humanly possible.”
Reid Miller (as Jadin Bell): “Maybe if you walk long enough and far enough, you can find me again.”
Mark hopes the movie will help people be more tolerant and accepting of one another.
Mark Wahlberg: “No matter where they come from, what their sexual orientation is, race, religion, any of those thing, you want to make sure that people are — and especially parents — that they’re listening to their children and that they’re hearing what’s going on with them, that they love them unconditionally and support them.”
After all, love always wins.
Mark Wahlberg: “The only thing that’s gonna bring people together is love. The only way we’re gonna heal is through love.”
Reid Miller (as Jadin Bell): Excuse me, I didn’t know you knew the words.
Mark Wahlberg and Reid Miller (as Joe and Jadin Bell, singing) “Don’t hide yourself in regret, just love yourself and you’re set. I’m on the right track, baby, I was born this way!”
Reid Miller (as Jadin Bell): “All right!”
Mark Wahlberg (as Joe Bell): “We’re not doing that again.”
“Joe Bell” is in theaters now. Mark Wahlberg also produced the film, along with another A-lister you may have heard of: Jake Gyllenhaal.
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