Nelly Furtado slapped childhood crush Mark Wahlberg several times on “Max Payne” set: 'His face is getting red'

Not everyone gets to meet their childhood celebrity crush — and even fewer get to slap them. But Nelly Furtado is special.

The "Eat Your Man" singer opened up about her very original experience during a visit to the Handsome podcast, where she shared that her childhood crush was the Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch frontman himself, Mark Wahlberg.

"When I was about 13 or 14, I had a poster of Mark Wahlberg's Calvin Klein ad. I had Marky Mark when he was all about the Calvins," Furtado shared with a laugh. "He was my first celebrity crush, I think. But there's a better story to this."

Related: Nelly Furtado goes topless on new album cover, reveals how ADHD impacted creating over 400 songs

Furtado explained that years later, after launching her music career and scoring a Grammy win for a single off her debut album, she was asked to fill a small role in the movie adaptation of the video game franchise, Max Payne.

"It's a short scene but I'm at a wake and my husband has just died and it's kind of Mark Wahlberg's character's fault, so I'm really angry at Mark Wahlberg in the scene. I don't remember the character's name," she said, then paused, realizing, "Was he Max Payne? Anyways, I'm in the scene, we're at a fictional wake, there's a lot of extras, there are a lot of people, I've hardly acted before and I am feeling the pressure."

She continued, "I'm like, 'Mark Wahlberg is about to walk on set' and not only do I have lines with him, I have to slap him in the face.'"

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At this point in her career, Furtado's film and TV appearances were mostly limited to singing or playing herself, aside from a brief role in CSI: NY, so she was still learning the do's and don'ts of acting. And that day, she would come to learn a major "don't."

"Because I'm a novice — I'm a singer, I'm not an actor — I actually thought that I could slap him several times on the face to practice," Furtado admitted. "So they're like, 'And, action!' And I'm like," she mimed several slaps, "Whapaw, whapaw! And his face is getting red and he's so nice, he doesn't say 'You don't have to really practice the slap.'"

She added, "So I'm there just slapping Mark Wahlberg. Meanwhile my 14-year-old self is like, 'Oh my God!'"

Related: Mark Wahlberg once encouraged his late mom to date his Perfect Storm costar George Clooney: 'Have a baby with him!'

Damage to Marky Marks' face aside, at least Furtado's inner teenage girl got to relish the moment. However, all that inner joy may have complicated her performance: Furtado went on to say that she had trouble crying in what was meant to be a serious moment for the character, but fake tears eventually got her through.

"I barely got through the scene," she recalled, "But I made it happen."

Representatives for Wahlberg did not immediately respond to Entertainment Weekly's request for comment.

You can watch Furtado tell the full story in the podcast episode above.

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