Scandals That Soured Mark Wahlberg's Reputation Beyond Repair

Many folks have complicated feelings about Mark Wahlberg. The actor has a controversial past, and many have a hard time looking past it. Wahlberg had a brush with the law when he was still young. A high school dropout, he lived a life riddled with crime, dealing and using drugs, stealing, and, eventually, engaging in violent crime. And, unfortunately, Wahlberg's antics followed him to Hollywood and did damage to his reputation.

During his delinquent teenage years, Wahlberg found himself in legal trouble after he and his friends shouted racist slurs and flung rocks at Black kids, and at the age of 16, he faced a prison sentence after he got into a nasty scuffle with a Vietnamese man named Johnny Trinh, leading to an injury that Wahlberg thought left Trinh with one blind eye. Wahlberg was initially charged with attempted murder but was only convicted of assault. He served 45 days in prison. 

Wahlberg told ABC News in 2006 that he never did apologize to Trinh. "I did a lot of things that I regretted, and I certainly paid for my mistakes," he admitted, adding that he changed his ways and, in turn, his life. "So I don't have a problem going to sleep at night. I feel good when I wake up in the morning," he said. (Wahlberg did finally apologize to Trinh a few years later). Trinh, meanwhile, spoke to the Daily Mail in 2014, revealing that Wahlberg wasn't the one who injured his eye. "He did hurt me, but my left eye was already gone. He was not responsible for that," Trinh disclosed, explaining that he'd lost his eye in the Vietnam War. He also said that he'd forgiven Wahlberg, and that it was "a long time ago." However, other scandals that followed show the actor's soured reputation might be beyond repair.

Mark Wahlberg lives an extremely lavish life, but he almost didn't. Wahlberg almost passed on the film that skyrocketed his acting career, and while he's one of the most recognizable names in Hollywood, the actor hasn't quite been able to shake the controversy that seems hellbent on following him wherever he goes — and some of it is entirely his own fault.

Wahlberg set tongues wagging in 2013 when he was a guest on "The Graham Norton Show" and appeared to be intoxicated. Wahlberg behaved unseemly, repeatedly interrupting Sarah Silverman, who was also a guest that night, and at one point made himself at home on Norton's lap. As if that wasn't bad enough, Wahlberg also proceeded to fondle Norton's nipples. It was awkward at best, but amid the subsequent media storm, the actor denied being intoxicated during the interview, claiming it was all an elaborate joke. "I tried to do a bit, and some people took it a little too seriously," he told Digital Spy. 

Norton certainly thought Wahlberg was drunk. He recalled the interview during the 2025 Henley Literary Festival. "Mark Wahlberg was a weird one because when he arrived, he didn't seem drunk. He told me about his film, told me a couple of stories about stunts going wrong or whatever, and then it was only 15 minutes into the show when whatever the hell was in his system really took hold — and it was hell," Norton said, per the Independent. He noted that, while guests are served alcohol during the interview, it's not nearly enough to cause intoxication. "If you ever see a drunk person on the show, it's because they've arrived drunk — we have not made that happen," Norton noted. 

In Hollywood, the only thing worse than being convicted of a crime is, apparently, trying to get a pardon for said crime. Mark Wahlberg learned this the hard way when he sought a pardon for the crimes of his youth in 2014. The actor petitioned New England state officials to scrub his spotty record, claiming that he is a changed man. "I am deeply sorry for the actions that I took on the night of April 8,1988, as well as for any lasting damage that I may have caused the victims," Wahlberg said in his application, per Us Weekly. Wahlberg, who has four kids, said he intends to walk on the straight and narrow to model good values to his children. News of his pardon application was not exactly well-received.

One of the Black kids Wahlberg had attacked and verbally assaulted in his youth spoke to The Associated Press in 2015. Kristyn Atwood told the outlet that, despite the incident having occurred over 25 years ago at that point, it still haunted her. "I don't think he should get a pardon," she told the outlet. "I don't really care who he is. It doesn't make him any exception." Wahlberg also received backlash from the Asian Activist group 18 Million Rising.

In 2016, Wahlberg told The Wrap that he regretted filing for a pardon, insinuating that he hadn't really wanted to do it initially. "It was one of those things where it was just kind of presented to me, and if I could've done it over again, I would never have focused on that or applied," he said. "I was kind of pushed into doing it. I certainly didn't need to or want to relive that stuff over again."

While Mark Wahlberg certainly wasn't the one writing the paychecks for the "All the Money in the World" film, it didn't help that word got out that he earned a whopping $1.5 million for a reshoot while his co-star, Michelle Williams, received a meager $1000.

The film's director, Ridley Scott, hastily recast Kevin Spacey in the film after allegations of sexual misconduct against the actor came to light, and all his scenes had to be reshot, some of which included Williams and Wahlberg. Scott initially told USA Today that the actors did the reshoot for free. Williams, too, said she didn't expect payment for it because she appreciated that Scott was willing to make the change. Wahlberg's team, however, made sure he wouldn't work for free, hence the $1.5 million paycheck. Williams was kept in the dark about her co-star's cashing in on the reshoot. When it came to light, however, Wahlberg found himself in hot water with fans and the general public alike.

In an attempt to make amends and restore his image, Wahlberg vowed to donate the money he earned from the reshoot to Time's Up. "I 100% support the fight for fair pay," the actor said in a subsequent statement, per CBS News.

Whether Mark Wahlberg ever gets pardoned for the hate crimes of his youth or not, it's safe to say that it will always haunt him. When the actor presented the SAG award to the cast of the Oscar-winning film "Everything Everywhere All at Once," it was frowned upon by many, given that the cast is predominantly Asian. Johnny Trinh, the Vietnamese man Wahlberg attacked in his youth, might have put the past behind him, but the public had not.

Inside Hook's editor, Bonnie Stiernberg, took to X to comment on the organizers' decision to have Wahlberg present the cast with the award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. "I gotta say, having Mark Wahlberg, who literally went to jail as a teen for committing a hate crime against a Vietnamese man, present an award to the cast of 'Everything Everywhere All At Once' was certainly a choice," Stiernberg penned. Other users concurred, with one opining, "I feel like if Mark Wahlberg (or his management) wanted his checkered racist past to fade into obscurity, presenting the SAG award to 'EEEAAO' would not have been on the list of gigs to take." Others argued that people should stop holding the actor's past against him.

Mark Wahlberg has a tendency to run his mouth, and it's gotten him in trouble on a few occasions. Avid fans will know that the actor had almost boarded one of the fateful flights that were involved in the September 11 terror attacks in 2001. As fate would have it, he ended up boarding a flight to his destination a week early. It saved his life. But during an interview with Men's Journal in 2012, the actor suggested that, if he had been on the plane, it never would have made its way into the World Trade Center. "If I was on that plane with my kids, it wouldn't have went down like it did," he said. "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.'"

The comment wasn't well received and reports circulated that the widow of one of the passengers on the plane called Wahlberg's assertion "disrespectful," per Reuters. The actor soon took note and apologized for what he said in the interview, noting that it had been foolish of him to speculate about what he would have done in that situation in the first place. "I deeply apologize to the families of the victims that my answer came off as insensitive, it was certainly not my intention," his statement read, per HuffPost. The actor, alongside many Americans, has continued to pay tribute to those who died that day every year. In September 2025, he posted to Facebook, "We will never forget. #September11."