Mark Wahlberg Tried to 'Push the Envelope' with “Flight Risk”: 'God's a Fan of Movies and Has a Sense of Humor' (Exclusive)

Mark Wahlberg was happy to push some boundaries while playing a villain in Flight Risk.

Wahlberg, 53, dives deep into a villainous persona in Mel Gibson's latest movie as a director. Between crass jokes and a murderous, threatening demeanor, he proves quite the adversary for U.S. marshal Madelyn (Michelle Dockery) and Winston (Topher Grace), a fugitive, as the group of three fly over Alaska.

"Being a very religious guy too, I've always said, whether it be Ted or this movie or anything else, that God's a fan of movies and has a sense of humor," the actor tells PEOPLE, when asked whether there were any lines he did not want to cross while taking a rare opportunity to play a villain. "But it's just the movie and the character. I never want to kind of censor that in myself. I think we push the envelope and then let everybody else decide. But being that character, it's better to push it and have it. You can always tone it back. You can't really crank it up."

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Wahlberg previously worked with Gibson, 69, as actors in front of the camera in movies like 2022's Father Stu and 2017's Daddy's Home 2. Flight Risk is Gibson's first movie as a director since 2016's Hacksaw Ridge. Wahlberg previously told PEOPLE in June 2024 that he, Gibson, Dockery and Grace shot the new movie in just 22 days.

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"We did a lot of improvising, a lot of Mel throwing different things out there, but there was a lot in the script as well. I would've kind of talk to Mel about, 'I want to kind of just surprise them with this or surprise them with that,' " Wahlberg says of his villain's most depraved moments throughout the movie. (He last portrayed an antagonist in 1996's Fear with Reese Witherspoon.)

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"I loved all the moments like me trying to get out of the handcuffs and trying to pick to the thing and just sitting there," he adds. "Nothing was gonna stop this guy. He didn't think anybody was walking away from this flight. He certainly wasn't going to, either way."

Wahlberg famously partially shaved his head each day on Flight Risk to give his character a balding look. The two-time Oscar nominee notes he "had a stress free rest of the summer" after shaving his head fully once the movie finished filming. "I was at the lake. I felt so good when I get out of the water, I don't have to dry my hair or anything," he adds.

Flight Risk is in theaters now.

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