Mark Wahlberg said today he never would have made such “out of line” comments regarding the Sept. 11 attacks — and blamed the interviewer for asking the question.
In an appearance this morning on WPLJ, the actor again apologized for telling Men’s Journal he could’ve stopped terrorists from hijacking one of the planes had he been on board.
“I was a little out of line with my wording and I didn’t take in to consideration how other people would respond to it or be affected by it,” he said.
Earlier this week, Wahlberg created a firestorm when he it emerged that he had told the magazine: “There would have been a lot of blood in that first-class cabin and then me saying, ‘OK, we’re going to land somewhere safely, don’t worry.’ ”
But Wahlberg said he never intended to bring up that dark day and that it was the interviewer who did.
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“I also had a journalist who was asking all the questions and I’m trying to promote a movie. … It wasn’t like all of a sudden I just decided I was going to get on this soap box and start talking about my opinion of 9/11. I was there to talk about the movie,” he said.
During the brief interview, Wahlberg said the reaction was “upsetting to me.”
“All I ever wanted to do, if I could have, was to prevent it [the attacks], like any American,” he said.
Wahlberg added, “I didn’t take into consideration how other people would take it.”
The “Perfect Storm” star was quickly panned by relatives of real-life passengers who perished.
They reminded Wahlberg that there were genuine heroes who actually did take on the terrorists that day without the luxuries of hindsight or stunt doubles.
That included passengers of United Flight 93, the Newark-to-San Francisco flight that was commandeered by terrorists and headed for the US Capitol.
Brave passengers, sparked by the battle cry “Let’s roll!,” stormed the cockpit and fought with hijackers before the plane crashed in rural Pennsylvania.
“What makes Wahlberg think he would have been a hero?” said Bill Doyle, whose son, Joseph, was killed in the north tower. “Do you honesty believe he would have gotten to the cockpit and flew the plane?”