Jason Merritt/Getty Images; Courtesy: Denise Truscello/WireImage Like Justin Bieber, Mark Wahlberg spent his teenage years in the spotlight, and he knows it's not always easy.
And in a recent web chat with The Sun, the 42-year-old father of four shared some insight and words of wisdom about the 19-year-old pop star.
When the 2 Guns star was asked what he thought about the Biebs "suddenly going downhill" and "a bit off the rails," Marky Mark showed complete compassion. "He's a teenager," he said. "Obviously he's living in a different day and age where everybody's got a cell phone and paparazzi's everywhere. But, I was in prison before I got a record out. I don't think he's been to prison, and I don't think he wants to go."
When asked what advice he'd give to Justin, Mark mimicked the interviewer's English accent and intonation, kiddingly saying, "Justin, are you listening? Don't be so naughty. Be a nice boy. Pull your trousers up. Make your mum proud. Stop smoking all that weed, you little bastard." (Sensationalist media, it's a joke!)
Mark quickly made it clear he was playing around. "No, look, he's a kid!" he said. "Let him live his life! I would hope that he would look at it like I wish I looked at it, and think now is the time to be focused and to be disciplined and to try to be the best that I can be at what I do in his career, like an athlete should."
The rapper-turned-actor added that the Biebs is "a nice enough kid" and confirmed the duo's movie project "still could happen." (He told E! News in April that it's just a matter of getting schedules aligned.) And if that happens, "maybe we'd do something for a soundtrack," Mark said. "But I don't know if that's gonna happen."
Believe!