'I'm happy playing the old guy': Mark Wahlberg doesn't mind taking on roles for older characters

Mark Wahlberg is happy to play "the old guy" in his movies.

The 49-year-old actor signed up to play the lead role in 'Uncharted' a decade ago, but the movie was never made and he's now going to play the father of Tom Holland's main character, something he is fine about because he thinks it looks "weird" when actors try to "hold on to youth".

He told Men's Health magazine: "I was attached to a movie for a decade called 'Uncharted', which is based on the video game, playing Nathan Drake. Cut to now and I'm playing the old guy. Yeah. Tom Holland is Nathan Drake!'

"There are certain people who try to hold on to youth and you have these kind of weird movies where older guys are paired up with younger actresses, and we all know how unfair that is. I'm more driven now than ever before and I'm also more comfortable in my own skin."

Mark - whose first major movie role came in 1997's 'Boogie Nights' - is proud his career has lasted so long.

He said: "When people come into this business, you look at the Hollywood issue every year in Vanity Fair and they anoint the Next Guy, right?

"A lot of those guys didn't become The Guy. There's only a handful. I'm The Guy who is still around, still doing it, you know?"

The 'Ted' star believes the key to his box office popularity is being relatable and admitted he hopes he can use that quality to inspire change with his upcoming film 'Good Joe Bell', in which he plays the titular character, who vows to walk across America in memory of his 15-year-old son Jadin, who took his own life after being bullied for being gay.

He said: "I'm playing a very conflicted, complex individual. But I think that makes it more relatable to the people that we really want to change and to open their eyes and their hearts to accepting people no matter where they come from or what their preference in any aspect of their life is, whether it be sexual, religion, any of those things.

"There's a lot of people who don't get it, unless they see somebody like them and they put themselves in those shoes."