Mark Wahlberg has praised his steamy on-screen romance with Halle Berry in their upcoming action comedy The Union.
In the film, Mark, 53, plays a construction worker named Mike who lives a normal life in New Jersey and has never left the tri-state area.
Meanwhile, Halle, 57, plays Roxanne, his glamorous high school ex-girlfriend who has embarked on a radically different existence as a super-spy.
When they both reach middle age, Roxanne reappears in Mike’s life and seduces him, only to ensnare him in a deadly web of espionage.
Now Mark has gushed about his co-star, noting that “it’s every man’s fantasy to think he had a chance with Halle Berry,” in an interview with Fox Digital News.
Mark Wahlberg praised his steamy onscreen romance with Halle Berry in his upcoming action comedy The Union; he is pictured in the film
He also revealed that he and Halle “go back a long time,” although they never starred in a movie together before The Union.
Despite Halle’s fiery movie star magnetism, Mark said his wife Rhea doesn’t have to worry about his gaze wandering.
“I think it’s a bit weird anyway when you’re portraying some kind of romance on screen, it’s not normal, but my wife knows she’s my everything. She’s the most special woman in the world,” Mark said sweetly.
Rhea and Mark married in 2009 after an eight-year romance and are now the proud parents of four children: Ella, 20, Michael, 18, Brendan, 15, and Grace, 14.
As for his relationship with Halle in the film, Mark explained: “They were childhood sweethearts and they got back together. He basically waited 25 years for her to come back, for her to walk through that door and into his life, and she happened, and there’s nothing he wouldn’t do to prove himself to her if he had a second chance.”
The Ted star shared: ‘For me, that was the whole motivation of the character: to do everything I could to not screw up again.’
In the trailer, Roxanne returns to Mike’s life and approaches him at a bar, tricking him into believing that all she wants is to rekindle their romance.
But when she lures him to a park, she injects him with a drug that knocks him out and he wakes up in Europe, setting off a wild adventure.
Roxanne’s colleague Tom Brennan, played by a grizzled JK Simmons, briefs Mike on the mission he has just unwittingly joined.
“Two nights ago, a list containing the identities of all American spies was stolen, and to get it back, we need someone who isn’t on that list,” Tom says.
“We need someone who is a nobody, someone we can trust,” Roxanne says, explaining that she and Tom work for a mysterious spy organization called The Union.
Despite Halle’s fiery movie star magnetism, Mark said his wife Rhea doesn’t have to worry about her gaze wandering, as she “knows she’s my everything.”
In the film, Mark, 53, plays a construction worker named Mike who lives a normal life in New Jersey and has never left the tri-state area.
Meanwhile, Halle, 57, plays Roxanne, his glamorous high school ex-girlfriend who has embarked on a radically different existence as a superspy.
Before long, he’s diving headlong into fast-paced action sequences, including shootouts, fistfights and chases.
Their romance also blossoms again, as Roxanne fondly tells Mike, “I’m glad it’s you and me, and I’m so glad I went back to that bar.”
In one endearing scene, Mike calls his mother (played by Goodfellas star Lorraine Bracco) from Roxanne’s phone and she somehow recognizes the number.
“Mom, how do you know?” Mike says, bewildered, to which his mother cheerfully replies, “I’ve always liked him for you. What is he up to?”
Directed by Julian Farino, who directed several episodes of Entourage, The Union will premiere on Netflix on August 16.