Donnie Wahlberg: The Cop at the Heart of Saw 2

October 27, 2005 by Lynn Barker

Ex-pop star Donnie Wahlberg (New Kids on the Block) has come a long way from his tough, big family Boston upbringing to achieve success in first the music world and now, in films. Like his actor brother Mark, Donnie left the music scene behind and prefers his acting gigs. If your love of pop groups doesn't go back as far as “New Kids”, you might have caught Donnie in The Sixth Sense or as part of the kidnapper gang in Mel Gibson's Ransom. He was a soldier in the HBO miniseries “Band of Brothers” as well and one of the victims of the aliens in Dreamcatcher.

Donnie: I tried to come in and act like I was some a**hole but I can't do it. [he shakes hands with us]. I did a press junket last year with a specific actor whose name I'm not going to say and man, he was [grumpy]. I really like him but I saw a side of him I didn't expect. He'd come into a room and be like ‘what the f**k! Why are you askin' me that, man?' I was like ‘Aww, that dude's not happy today'.

TeenHollywood: What drew you to this film? Did you see the first Saw?

Donnie: Yeah. I really liked the first one. It appealed to me, as a viewer, on a lot of levels. I thought it was fun. Thought it took chances. I felt like I was watching a movie by some young filmmakers who had an idea and took a chance and pushed real hard and got it made. I knew the movie was appealing to young people as well. And, I could see kids, hopefully, not making slasher films, but being inspired by it. It almost looked like some dudes made the movie with their digital camera and went home and edited it on their home computer with some software that they downloaded from the internet. I could see kids saying ‘I could do that. I could make a movie like that'.

TeenHollywood: What else did you like about it?

Donnie: I think because, at its core, there was a human character who was guilty of something we're all guilty of which is taking for granted what we have. There's a lot more to it. There's a sick sadistic serial killer or serial therapist who has decided he's going to teach us how to appreciate what we have. But, I think all the viewers of the movie, at some point, they all say ‘wow, what if that was me? Could I do that?' when Cary Elwes is reaching for that phone and he can't get it and his wife and daughter are on the other end of the line, that's heavy.

TeenHollywood: How much of a trip was it to be in that very recognizable bathroom from the first film?

Donnie: It was a little uncomfortable. Hopefully, my reaction is probably what the audience might feel when they come back. It's like ‘holy s**t'. When we revisit that room it's like ‘whoa!'. We shot it in a different place. It was a replica of the room and I don't know how they did it. The details were astonishing. You forget little things.

TeenHollywood: Your own son thinks you are pretty cool for being in this movie, right?

Donnie: Yeah. I gave him the masks. I stole some. They had the puppet mask at a party in New York so I stole it and gave it to him but none of the other scary props. The puppet mask was scary enough. I'm The Man for about another six days. We'll have the opening weekend and Halloween day he's going to go to school and most of his friends would have seen the movie and he'll get some pats on the back and I'll be The Man. ‘Dude, your dad was good in that movie, man!' The thing that trips me out is he saw the first one behind my back with his friend. They watched it on DVD. He's 12. Where did the time go? It seems like yesterday that he and I were sitting there watching ‘Beauty and the Beast' on VHS. Now VHS doesn't exist anymore and his whole week right now is centered upon me and him taking ten of his friends and going to see this movie Friday night at the theater near the house. That's it. He can't wait. This is his movie right now.

TeenHollywood: What does he think about you once being part of the New Kids on the Block group?

Donnie: It's a mini-series for ABC. It's not about the day. It's based on the 9/11 Commission report and is a very painful walk through hindsight. It's about the real players and the real opportunities we had to prevent a lot of that stuff from happening. For whatever reason, people chose to go left when they could have gone right and, to recreate the day, I don't want to see that day ever again, but to recreate the circumstances leading up to the day, it's really profound and I think it will make people look more closely at who is in charge and what their decision-making process is.

TeenHollywood: So, despite the intensity, did you have fun on Saw 2? We hear some pranks were pulled .

Donnie: I was determined to have fun on this movie. I was, like, ‘I'm going to have a good time, and I'm going to put corpses in people's bathrooms, and I'm going to play practical jokes, and I'm going to have fun - and when the camera's on, when I need to get ready and put myself out there and take chances, I'll do it'. And that's what I did.

TeenHollywood: Who did you get with the corpse in the bathroom trick?

Donnie: Dina Meyer [who plays Kerry, Mathews' partner and a returnee from the original film] was my favorite test subject. She's pretty unflappable though.

TeenHollywood: Must be fun at your house at Halloween.

Donnie: No, at Halloween I'm all about the candy. I'm not into terrorizing people. I'm into the candy. We couldn't afford candy when I was little. We'd, like, steal candy. And when Halloween came we were, like, the Wahlberg Squirrels - like collection nuts. That guaranteed a candy bar every day until Christmas because of Halloween. That was my deal at Halloween.

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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.