Social media is still rejoicing over Sunday night’s Screen Actors Guild Awards where fan-favorite contender Everything Everywhere All At Once did a clean sweep. In addition to Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Ke Huay Quan winning in their respective categories, the ensemble took home the biggest award of the night, Outstanding Cast in a Motion Picture. The prize is considered a bellwether for the Best Picture winner at the Oscars.
Ninety-four-year-old screen legend James Hong, who co-stars in the film, is currently going viral for his part of the acceptance speech where he pointed out Hollywood’s history of yellowface and the systematic exclusion of Asian actors. Still, despite the joyousness of the cast’s win, Twitter couldn’t help but call out the irony of the actor selected to present the night’s final award: controversial actor Mark Wahlberg.
Despite being one of Hollywood’s most bankable actors—and proud Catholics—the Boogie Nights actor has a well-documented history of committing hate crimes against Black and Asian people, stemming from his teenage years. Before Sunday night, his rap sheet had most recently resurfaced after he shared a tribute to George Floyd on Instagram in 2020.
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In 1986, when Wahlberg was 16, a civil rights lawsuit was filed against him after several incidents of harassing Black children with racial slurs and throwing rocks at them. (The case was ultimately settled). In 1992, he repeatedly kicked a man in the face and fractured his jaw in another case that was settled.
The incidents that followed Wahlberg the most (though not enough to materially impact his career) are his nearly fatal assaults on two Vietnamese-American men in 1988. Over the course of a day, Wahlberg knocked one man unconscious with a wooden stick and punched the other, a Vietnam war veteran, in the eye. Wahlberg admitted to police that he attacked the first victim while making a series of anti-Asian remarks. He was later charged with attempted murder and pleaded guilty to felony assault, for which he was sentenced to two years in prison. Ultimately, he only served 45 days.
Rather controversially, in 2014, Wahlberg applied for (and failed to obtain) a pardon from the state of Massachusetts for his convictions.
Of course, seeing Wahlberg present the predominantly Asian cast of Everything Everywhere All At Once with an award in a landmark moment of Asian cinema put a bad taste in viewers’ mouths. It’s unclear whether Wahlberg was chosen to present before or after votes had been tallied. Still, Twitter users lamented the fact that he was able to present at all, particularly in light of Hollywood’s reaction to Will Smith following Slapgate at last year’s Oscars.
The Emancipation star noticeably wasn’t at the ceremony to present Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor, as is tradition for the recipient of Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in the previous year.
It also didn’t help that the Father Stu star referred to one of the other films in the category Women Talking as “Women Are Talking,” a flub the Internet found suspicious if not disrespectful. Suffice it to say, it seems like there’s still a long road to the actor rehabilitating his sordid image.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct that the year of Wahlberg’s attack on the the two Vietnamese-American men was in 1988. It has also been updated to reflect that the victim of his alleged 1992 assault was not Black.
