Actor Mark Wahlberg hopes 'Deepwater Horizon' movie honors victims

CEO Tony Hayward was the public face of BP at the time, but Deepwater Horizon opts to demonize a BP rep named Donald Vidrine (John Malkovich), first portrayed as grotesquely unconcerned about safety regulations if they threaten to slow down production, then turned into an outright coward following the explosion.

Filmed in and around New Orleans, the picture has Wahlberg playing Mike Williams, one of the rig's chief technicians. Eleven workers were killed and millions of barrels of oil spewed onto the shorelines of several states for almost three months.

Director Peter Berg and producer/star Mark Wahlberg reunite for the second time with Deepwater Horizon. With only five years' distance from September 11, addressing the event head-on would be like staring into the sun, enough to turn the camera lens into a molten goo.

It is no surprise when he clashes with John Malkovich's oil company executive over the results of a safety test. He's made World Trade Center all over again, telling a story of bravery and self-sacrifice that tables a more contentious discussion. Although a lot of the technical business of what was happening out there isn't explained with enough clarity for those of us not in the oil industry, it's easy to figure out that some people are not seeing eye to eye on certain important issues.

Q: Were you relieved to see you had a scene with Russell?

That crew is boiled down to electronics specialist Mike Williams, played with unshowy heroism by Mark Wahlberg. I take my hat off to these guys.

It is a shame, he adds, that when a tragedy strikes, they can be remembered for the wrong reasons.

The film captures the tedious and gruelling pressures of life on an oil rig with workers having to cope being away from home weeks on end and we see Mark Wahlberg, as the real-life Mike Williams, keeping in touch with his wife (Kate Hudson) via Skype.

Disney to make live-action 'Lion King,' Favreau directing
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"We don't live in a flawless world when it comes to getting oil out of the ground and turned into gas to put in the airplanes or cars that we drive", he says. What did they go through? "They were focused on the environmental disaster, which was obviously terrible, but you're talking about 11 people losing their lives, and that's pretty substantial".

"I suppose the answer is, 'What's the alternative?' Stop?"

Kurt Russell: "It's a little more hard than you think, getting that oil out of the ground into your auto and into airplanes and into your houses". The only things we learn about the characters are that one has a vehicle, and another a family, and this is not enough to consider the characters to be rounded.

You just wish Berg and the movie was a bit tougher on root causes of the disaster: A billion dollar corporation that valued profits over human lives and the environment.

In a career spanning more than 50 years, Russell has played some of Hollywood's most memorable characters.

And the Jane The Virgin actress, 32, says she got an acting masterclass from her co-stars during filming. I look at that as when I really found my voice.

"The truth is you weigh all those things. You couldn't have had somebody who was more concerned about his men or his rig, and it just goes to show".


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