The Source Magazine caught up with Academy Award winner Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg in New York at an intimate press conference where they discussed their latest film “2 Guns,” which is an explosive action film that tracks two operatives from competing bureaus who are forced on the run together. But there is a big problem with their unique alliance: Neither knows that the other is an undercover federal agent.
For the past 12 months, DEA agent Bobby Trench (Washington) and U.S. naval intelligence officer Marcus Stigman (Wahlberg) have been reluctantly attached at the hip. Working undercover as members of a narcotics syndicate, each man distrusts his partner as much as the criminals they have both been tasked to take down
When their attempt to infiltrate a Mexican drug cartel and recover millions goes haywire, Trench and Stigman are suddenly disavowed by their superiors. Now that everyone wants them in jail or in the ground, the only person they can count on is the other. Unfortunately for their pursuers, when good guys spend years pretending to be bad, they pick up a few tricks along the way.
Q: What do you guys think is harder, making audiences laugh in a comedic role or having them be emotionally invested in a drama?
Denzel: I think for me, I have less experience with this (comedies). So I won’t say it’s harder, but again that’s why I wanted to go out there with somebody who I know knows that territory better than I do. And again, it’s film so it frees you up to try stuff. Mark, some of the stuff he was doing, I was like “oh, he could do that, just go for it!”
Mark: I approach everything the same, I try to make it as real as possible. Make people laugh or make people cry, it’s always the same approach for me.
Q: What did you guys find out about each other while working together? What surprised you?
Mark: Well, we’ve known each other for a while. I think what surprised me was how willing Denzel was to just try anything. Because we wanted to add some humor and kind of shake it up a bit and combine comedic elements with the dramatic aspect of the movie.
Denzel: Especially coming off of “Flight,” I was looking to do something more fun. So when I read the script and I heard that Mark was involved, I was like, “Oh, okay, I could be safe.” Because I knew Mark was not just funny, but he has a warmth and a heart about him that I’ve loved and I watched “Ted” the other night. (laughs) That’s a sick movie. How’d you do that fight scene? That was crazy!
Mark: That was embarrassing.
Denzel: But you were willing! You got spanked and everything. So all of that, I was like, “Okay, I want to be a part of this.” I wasn’t ready to be spanked yet, not right out of the gate. But he really helped free me up, you know, to go for it, worry about being silly or being too whatever.
Q: Can you guys talk a little bit about the bull scene? How was it being in that role for both of you?
Mark: Well, I thought it was no big deal being hung upside down. But all the blood’s rushing to your head, it was not fun. Denzel actually wanted to go up at the last second and I was just like, “Oh, let’s just go up now.” And then of course, I started complaining quite a few minutes before he started complaining. It’s not a fun position to be in. But I think it’s a really cool scene, it’s really different, you haven’t seen it before.
Denzel: The bull enjoyed the scene. (laughs)
Mark: Denzel kept saying, “The bull doesn’t give a shit! He doesn’t know we’re making the movie.”
Q: What appealed to you both about this project?
Denzel: For me, we could have been mailmen, we could have been whatever it was, it was the opportunity to work with Mark. Without being cliche, we’re buddies. It’s a buddy movie. So it was a chance to do that and have fun. I mean, I didn’t do months of DEA research, let’s just put it that way.
Mark: I did. (laughs)
Denzel: I watched “DEA Detroit,” a series. That was my in-depth research.
Mark: I was attached to the movie first, and it was always about – who is the other guy. It’s about the two guys. No matter what they’re doing. You look at “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” they’re running from something that you never really saw. But with these guys, usually they’ll take the comedy guy, the really out there comedy guy and then the very straight guy and put them together. We didn’t want to do that. I felt like you had to have two really formidable opponents and to earn that camaraderie, to earn that trust in one another. And that was really the movie.
Q: Can you talk about how physical punishing the roles were and how key the fight scenes were?
Denzel: That Bull scene! Because it was funky in there. It was like where they sold cows or something; like the auction room and it was hot and we were upside-down, so that was (hard).
Mark: I think that was the day Edward James Olmos was intentionally forgetting his lines. He really loved us being up in that position. He had that big shit eating grin on. Because the first scene we did together, we had him tied up and we’re slapping him around, so then we’re tied up and upside-down!
“2 Guns” hits theaters this Friday, August 2nd
-Jagpal Khahera
