We can legitimately call Mark Wahlberg a friend of the show, right? The Boston-born-guy-who-acted-his-way into Eagles Fans’-hearts always makes it a point to drop by The Preston & Steve Studio when ever he comes to town.
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00:00it's great to have our guest back in our studio this morning he's here to talk about a movie
00:05that is going to be in theaters on april 13th it is a story of a gentleman by the gentleman by the
00:10name of father stewart long and it's called father stew we're happy to have mark walberg here
00:14like i just broke the fourth wall i watched her do the traffic wow and i knew she was going to
00:23mention the schuylkill well you you're an honorary philadelphian i mean let's let's face a lot of
00:31pride in that yes yeah i remember when when the the eagles were uh heading to the super bowl we
00:36you you came on with us man and uh you know we never forgot that of course you're bince papaya
00:42so that's uh i actually uh it was it was the only time i could stomach the patriots losing
00:46was to my eagles yeah and we believed you when you said it so that meant a lot that's true it was
00:53true it was an honor to put that uniform on uh so mark the uh the story of father stewart is uh
00:58it's pretty wild man it's uh and i'm curious before we go down uh the the storyline that people may not
01:04be familiar with the life of father stew how did this story get to you oh gosh it sounds like one
01:10of those jokes i'm gonna rest i'm an italian restaurant in beverly hills with two priests
01:13and literally on a saturday afternoon one of them starts pitching me a movie and he told me the story
01:18once i wasn't really paying attention he started telling me again and then it just dawned on me oh my
01:22gosh this is something that i should do i'm always looking for the next great challenge and more
01:27importantly this is also an opportunity for me to do something that really kind of represents my faith
01:31and and hopefully will will uh will will help a lot of people and people really touched by the film
01:36there's a lot to be gleaned from this movie and i i'm i'm a sucker for this kind of story this the
01:43fact that it's real only makes it that much more impactful but um there's redemption there's a false
01:49start to redemption that is uh that is driven home by a more a cataclysmic event that occurs to to uh
01:56with father stew but also all the things like forgive i think forgiveness and things that we
02:01lose sight of i was talking to casey prior to having you on today about we've forgotten how to you know
02:06take people as a whole entity and most importantly seeing the good in people seeing the good in people
02:12and that's and that point is driven home in the movie is that we're all imperfections we're all
02:17and that part of it but retain the ability to say this may not be something i'm thrilled about this
02:23person but they did this they there's there's something in there and that point's driven home
02:27as well there's something in father stew that makes him able to slalom into the right people's
02:34spheres who help him along yeah and he's then in turn touched so many people in such a short
02:38amount of time uh during the priesthood but it's it's remarkable i just went to helena montana we
02:43had the premiere there and to see all the people to show the film to his family his friends parishioners
02:48but also see how many people he touched right it's remarkable i mean you really feel his presence there
02:54and uh now we're getting to share that with the whole world for those who don't know his story and i
02:58don't want to give away too much of of maybe what you want to keep for the people who view the film
03:02what what is his story for those who may well he uh he was a boxer you know his parents uh he lost a younger
03:08brother really early on his parents didn't really have the coping skills to deal with that he was
03:12left to his own devices he became a fighter he was angry at the world he uh he then tried to go to
03:17hollywood to become an actor fell in love with a girl would do anything to be with her and of course
03:21she lured him into church she couldn't be with him if he wasn't baptized he wasn't catholic he was
03:25like dumped the water on me oh man yeah yeah and then uh and then he had this terrible accident
03:29had a visit from mother mary and then he went to the fullest extreme and said not only am i going to
03:34become a catholic i'm going to become a priest and everybody in his life just thought he was
03:38absolutely crazy he challenged everything about the priesthood in the seminary got diagnosed with
03:43a rare disease uh incurable disease and then as his physicality deteriorated his spirituality soared
03:49and they still campaigned to have him ordained as a priest and he touched a lot of people he seemed
03:54to be like leap of faith was his thing because uh yeah he tried in the beginning he moves to
04:00los angeles with nothing no one that you know checks into a hotel i'm gonna be an actor yeah
04:06well he found out otherwise and but but you know and and yet this this other thing happens in his
04:11life and yet he takes another leap and he seems to be one of these that that that just trusted his
04:16instincts 100 all the way yeah yeah it was all about intuition for him and you know it's remarkable
04:21because the things that he did in a short amount of time really uh i talked to the archbishop who had
04:27ordained him and he was like i couldn't believe but he had so much real life experience and all
04:31the things that people were going through and struggling with he had already experienced so he
04:35knew how to kind of help them cope with that and to see with with all the adversity that he faced
04:39he handled it with such grace and dignity and if we're lucky enough to get old we're all gonna face
04:43it yes you know it's one of those things where how do you cope with that you know after just losing
04:47my mom i lost my mom during the movie oh yeah and um and so it's uh it's remarkable it gives me a lot
04:53of comfort you know i'm getting old losing a lot of people there's a very powerful scene i won't go
04:58into it but it apparently happened right after um your mom had passed and it seemed as if in a way
05:03you were you were you were channeling that emotion in this scene it's particularly it's in the church and
05:08you're you're why i'm doing all these things that you want of me speaking to god and how am i here
05:15and it seemed like i mean we've always you know compliment you're you're a great actor and in that
05:20moment though so visceral and you know you you uh everyone's eye tearing up at that because you do
05:27have those moments like wait a second i thought i was doing everything right yeah but that's not
05:30what it's about yeah no no when everything's going good life throws your curveball and god is
05:35definitely at work here it's uh it's amazing to see how people are being touched by this movie
05:39it's coming out now at easter during the pandemic where everybody's been struggling right so people
05:45from all walks of life really feel like they identify and relate to stew in their own personal way
05:48yeah and and i can as well and uh so you know my father was a deacon my father passed away eight
05:54years ago and you know and he wasn't born catholic and he didn't uh convert until he met my mother and
05:59and all that stuff and uh and so you you talk about you know finding the grace of god through pain and
06:05suffering and so they had lost their first uh born child and uh you figure something like that could
06:09and i talked to my dad about you know they could have been like you know like peace out thank you but
06:14every single time i see you i i'm reminded of our son but like it actually um it drew them closer to
06:20god which is like this crazy thing that that happens and it happened to father stew and so
06:25you're in philadelphia and you're doing a press tour in philadelphia and i wasn't sure if you were aware
06:29of father bill atkinson um this okay so his story is very very reminiscent of what happened with father
06:35stew so uh father atkinson wrote this book called green bananas and father atkinson was a teacher at
06:40monsignor bonner high school and uh he uh was a paraplegic you know he was in a terrible like
06:45sledding accident and so he writes this book called green bananas and essentially it's like uh don't
06:51buy green bananas because you're not promised tomorrow right so like you may you may not even
06:55be here to enjoy that yellow banana and so this guy i you know i'm sure as you you know go through
07:00the uh the city today um i'm sure maybe this will come up um you know more than uh one time yeah
07:06there's something and to that point so i there are two uncles uh in in my life my my wife's uncles
07:12were both priests 50 years plus they've since passed away to uh uh father jim and father charlie
07:18and and there and father stew reminded me there's a similar sort of thing there's a there's an i don't
07:26know what it is and maybe it's if if grace is brought into your life and and you're you know there's a
07:32way they carried themselves and you say oh these you know they don't they they don't know what
07:36they're talking it's easy a lot of times to dismiss you can't possibly connect to my to my situation
07:41but i remember years ago sitting down with uh with both of them at various points i'm like man they
07:46they got it they got it and they were able to speak comfort to me at a time when i really needed it
07:51and and you you project there's a couple of scenes in the movie like uh you know where you're you're
07:56dispensing the um the solace to people in trouble and they look at you and they and you're in this
08:01vegetative state father stew i should say and and um and and you always get that well if he can
08:06then maybe i can and if this helped him maybe it can help me it's such a powerful message yeah
08:12yeah and it's important i mean people are really struggling right now but but having that that that
08:17real life experience is invaluable when you were talking about that that's particular scene i've
08:21always i've never studied acting but i have a lot of real life experience right good the bad and i kind
08:26of utilize all of that in portraying these characters that i play and try to do it in the most
08:30authentic way and uh yeah so you know going through that particular moment that particular
08:36time but still you know stew in the way he handled it it helped me and it will continue to help me and
08:41i you know i just i'm much more optimistic about the future and accepting things that you can't change
08:45and yeah yeah learning that is a big lesson yeah who did you meet from the real story i know father
08:50stew has passed but anybody from his family oh yeah his dad uh his siblings his family his best
08:56friends from the seminary uh his childhood friends he's uh he's got a you know he's a colorful guy
09:02lots of really interesting friends yeah yeah um well i knew you were coming in so when watching the film
09:08i kind of wanted to look at the practical uh parts of movie making as well as taking the story in
09:14and one of the things that i love mark is uh and i'm curious about you as an actor when you're uh
09:19on the set and you're you're you're giving your lines and so on um it's it's not the same as what we
09:24see once it's edited and put together the music in this film the way that really added a body to
09:30it i thought um and when you watch a completed film um or does that start to impact you more
09:37with those added pieces of the puzzle you know what i mean than when you were there delivering
09:41those lines yeah of course i mean well i i'll give you a great example i was making a movie called
09:47the fighter and uh i wanted to watch every great boxing movie ever made leading up until the start of
09:53the film i happened to be on a plane flying to boston i had rocky on yeah watching rocky all of
09:59a sudden you know every time i watch rocky you know what it does to you all of a sudden i turned
10:04off the volume and i was because i was on a call and i'm still watching and the movie just completely
10:09didn't work yeah without the sound and all the music and in the score and so yeah of course and and
10:16rosie's done a great job i mean i knew when i was reading the script because all this um the scenes
10:21described the music that would be playing and the artist that she wanted to use i was like oh this
10:24is going to be really this is rosalyn ross first time director first time right wrote the script
10:29um and you took a chance yeah um but but i i think you had you had a good i was reading an
10:34interview with you and you said she wrote the words she knew what she was seeing what better person to
10:39translate that yeah yeah i've definitely felt like that because we were trying to make this movie for a
10:43while david o russell and i were trying to get get somebody to write the script and i couldn't
10:47couldn't crack it you know and then when she came and said she wanted to um try it i said go ahead
10:52and i kind of told her the story connected her to the people and then all of a sudden she comes back
10:56to me with a movie that i wanted to make so i said if she could put on the page she could put on the
11:00screen that's wild had you worked with uh jackie weaver before no i hadn't no she's she plays the mom
11:05in silver linings playbook yeah which is obviously set here in philly as well and i i love her she's still
11:09she's so compelling and um there's something about her eyes whenever you watch like she just emotes so well
11:14she's fantastic and you know i lost my mom during the making of the movie and to kind of rely on her
11:20she was she was definitely there for me in lots of ways and if i ever needed to get emotional or
11:24anything like that like there's a scene where i'm coming into the church and they're gonna
11:27i've realized that they're actually going to ordain me and i just look to her and then of course
11:31i just got super emotional you know uh so your father in this film is um mel gibson and so i i
11:37noticed that your relationship with him in this movie is very very similar to daddy's home too
11:44where he plays your father in that movie as well oh yeah yeah he was going to play my brother but
11:49mel mel obviously was uh was with bill long stew's dad his first choice second choice and third choice
11:55i've made a lot of movies about real people and especially sensitive subjects and i've never had
12:00somebody deal with it in in in such a nonchalant way the way that bill has i mean he really gets a kick
12:05out of it he doesn't really he knows that um that i'm playing stew but he's able to kind of detach
12:11himself from right and so like when he sees mel he just gets he just starts giggling all the time
12:16well he you know and and he made the passion of the christ uh and and uh directed and i assume you
12:23were able to pull on his yeah on his yeah yeah this was a smaller film than some of the other films
12:28you've made yeah yeah and and of course you know taking on the responsibility of financing the movie
12:33myself you know he financed the passion he kind of did it all um so you know that was uh that was
12:38something i was able to take a play from his book and and figure out the best way to get the movie
12:42made without any kind of creative interference because once you bring on a financier or studio
12:47and everybody's got notes i mean they're paid to have an opinion right and then you kind of get
12:51that you get into the rabbit hole we didn't want to make a film by committee we wanted to kind of do
12:55our own thing and then find the right partner to distribute it sure you're just tuning in it's uh
12:59mark walberg is joining us in studio father stew is going to be out theaters april 13th you guys shot this
13:03in 30 days 30 days yeah wow it's like six years to get it done and 30 days always yeah yeah yeah
13:09you basically in quicksand for all this time and then all of a sudden you have to sprint to the to
13:14the finish line and then it was the same thing with we had a lot of time to edit the film but then we
13:18had a short amount of time to release the film so i'm sorry yeah i'm not surprised that you were
13:24able to get it done so quickly because you work hard and there was a nice uh documentary that was
13:28done about your life and you just know that like you're just the dude who uh who is just working
13:33from the time you wake up to the time you go to bed i also know that you take your um your health
13:38and your physical fitness very very seriously you don't do it because you have to you do it because
13:42you want to and you love it so gaining 30 pounds in six weeks was that fun or did that suck it was
13:48the worst experience of my life i'm still feeling uh the repercussions of that it's just because it's
13:55just at my age it's not that healthy to do it's a freaking nightmare i tried to do it in the most
13:59healthy way possible so when people think oh god you got to gain 30 pounds oh poor you like you
14:04know you it's not like all the things you crave are on the menu none of those things were things
14:09that i got to eat i didn't the fun stuff i was eating you know a dozen eggs with a dozen pieces
14:14of bacon two three bowls of white rice drinking olive oil out of a glass and then i'd have a steak
14:20and then you know right after that meal two hours later you get a knock on the door and you got to eat
14:24again and you got to pound another meal so from seven thousand calories uh a day for the first
14:29two weeks to then eleven thousand calories for the last four weeks it was terrible and it was all like
14:34sodiums starches stuff to get you bloated yeah not healthy at all i can't believe you guys do that
14:40like you know because we we have a friend rob mckelhenny did it for a roll too it's always sunny
14:44yeah he did it for a laugh he said what he said what what ron just said it was it was a nightmare
14:50backing on that weight yeah it's a lot easier to lose it because then you're just i mean you got
14:54to be disciplined right you got to be able to say no but it's a pack it in when you're already
14:58stuffed that's just the worst do you know uh the book or the movie called diary of a city priest it's
15:03it's based on a guy named father john mack uh mcnamee and it's said here in philadelphia as well
15:07sort of like what casey was bringing up and the the movie was starring um david morse and uh when
15:12watching father stew it just it sort of reminded me of these people that find ways to do good for
15:17people who really need it who who need to find um some salvation and don't know where else to turn and and
15:23so if if you like um doing this role with father stew i highly recommend diary of the city priest
15:27yeah i definitely checked that out i'm a big fan of david morse too but um you know it's one of those
15:31things where stew like he was so effective especially like in his prison ministry you know he would when
15:35he would go and talk to the inmates because he was one of those guys yeah yeah you know so you could just
15:39tell them how it was and we all know people who have made bad decisions and you know if they feel like
15:45nobody cares then what what are they what are they going to live for you know we have to we have to remind
15:50people that we're not going to give up on them nobody's beyond redemption you see the good in
15:54people and uh accepting people for who they are so it's so important yeah that's what a christmas uh
16:01christmas carol is my favorite book of all time because of that you have someone who is well
16:07everyone's deemed beyond you know help he this guy's gone and and he does have redemption and sometimes
16:12you just need someone to extend a hand and say okay we're going to work on this and that's what this
16:18whole movie is about i love that he has almost a false not a completely false start father stew to
16:24his embracing of becoming a priest but it all becomes clear as i said before when he has another
16:30step in it this this this disease that he gets that really okay where what does it really come down to
16:36and it seems to me that you in your life have gone through you've hit that point where uh where you
16:42are all in now did it did it was was that a a hard process or did you have a kind of a a switch
16:48flick moment as father stew had no i mean i've always been you know uh you know ever since a
16:54young age when i started refocusing on my faith good things started happening for me i'm a guy who's
16:58super disciplined and routine and i've got a lot of gratitude i'm like okay if this is working i'm
17:02sticking with this i'm not going to veer off of the plan at all and then i realized of course you know
17:08all these things are happening for a reason i'm being put in this position for a reason the story
17:11is coming to me for a reason and so to be able to then focus on doing the greater good and figuring
17:16out what my purpose is and how i utilize all the talents that i have and the position that i'm in
17:21to do something great and help people and inspire people to do more and that's why i'm hearing now
17:25all these great stories i can imagine if this movie works i really want to focus on doing a lot
17:30more faith-based content things that'll bring people together hopefully people will come to me with
17:34great stories young filmmakers will come with their ideas and i'll be able to help them make their
17:38movies and and get these kind of projects out there it helps people and also doing more things just
17:43behind the scenes without going and talking about it you know because you know the left hand is not
17:48supposed to know what the right hand is doing we're supposed to be doing things um out of the
17:52goodness of our heart not for a pat on the back but it is it's also you know it's important to have
17:57the conversation especially in this day and age when there's so much focus and emphasis on negativity
18:01and people being so judgmental without really you know and we all have our own stuff we all have
18:07our own issues and it'd be a shame for somebody to go and and affect somebody else's life knowing
18:12they have stuff i mean that's yeah that's a bad situation yeah the the the the the inclination just
18:18to dismiss people in their entirety is it's got to change it's how i think that's how we all heal
18:24when we start to do what you just said yeah uh casey mentioned your work ethic and uh how busy you
18:29are do you do you ever take breaks you ever go on a little down time uh yeah a little bit
18:36it's golf right yeah golf i mean i i get that even i get that time every day you know i wake up with
18:42my prayer routine and reading scripture and then i kind of work out and then if i'm lucky you know
18:47i wake the kids up i'll go play golf in two hours or less i have that time to myself and then i kind
18:51of work for the rest of the day but yeah i'm looking forward to the summer after i finish a movie
18:56in july and go up to to our lake house and gaza ranch and play golf and hang out with the kids and
19:01you're my kind of golfer by the way i'm like a uh sunday morning crack of dawn yeah a little under
19:06two hours i can play 18 holes yeah you got too much stuff to do i mean you do a lot of praying
19:11on the course i assume right uh please go ahead and make this yeah it's funny because my wife was
19:19just uh give me an earful she was like you know brendan my youngest son now is playing golf too which
19:24is the greatest thing ever and annoys my wife so much because now she can never say no to me
19:29going to play because both of my sons are playing so he's uh he's like mom dad even rushes on the golf
19:35course she's like you know you know how bad that is you're rushing on the golf course i said whoa whoa
19:40whoa i said do you know why i rush on the golf course she's like no why i said because you call
19:45me every 10 minutes going where are you why are you taking so long get home so i purposely stopped playing
19:51in the middle of the day with my friends and playing the four-hour golf round right and i
19:55started playing first thing crack of dawn like a crazy person for you it's only for you mark there
20:02are certain scenes in certain movies that will just always bring a smile to my face and um there's a
20:07scene in ted 2 where you guys are doing uh the law uh law and order theme and they they started um yes
20:13and they were advertising law and order the return during the super bowl this year pretty heavily
20:24and i could not not hear your voice and seth mcfarland's voice every time the spot came on so
20:29i just want to thank you publicly for doing that thank you thank you well i got to put in for the uh
20:33for the stripper name uh rather than stripper name it's a my wife and i that's a perennial so yeah
20:39there's a lot we could thank you for but you do have to get going so we're just going to remind
20:43people that father stew is in theaters april 13th it's a great film and if you get a chance uh please
20:48go soon it's great to have you here in person thanks for yeah likewise it's nice to actually
20:52get in you know into the studio again see people one-on-one face-to-face i mean this pandemic has
20:57been tough on everybody so i hear you man well the movie came at the right time yeah yeah thank you
21:01for having me guys i appreciate it anytime mark walberg
21:13you
21:18you
21:20you
21:22you
21:24you