While California has always been a mecca for celebrities, in recent years a lot of big names have moved from the City of Angels for a slew of different cities and environments. Most recently among these was actor and producer Mark Wahlberg, who left California for Nevada and brought his family with him.
But why did he go? Well it turns out he thought Hollywood would be the place he needed to be in order to secure big acting roles in projects like Transformers or Uncharted. So he came to the heavily populated state only to find out he really didn’t need to be in Tinseltown after all. Or as he noted on The Talk:
I want to be able to work from home. I moved to California many years ago to pursue acting and I’ve only made a couple of movies in the entire time that I was there. So, to be able to give my kids a better life and follow and pursue their dreams, whether it be my daughter as an equestrian, my son as a basketball player, my younger son as a golfer, this made a lot more sense for us.
His words echo a lot of celebrities who have left Hollywood to improve their home lives. Both Matthew McConaughey and James Van Der Beek moved their kids from LA to Texas in order to give them a better growing up experience. McConaughey’s wife Camila Alves specifically noted she didn’t want growing up with paparazzi to be “normalized” either. Chris Hemsworth and his wife Elsa Pataky have had similar claims about shifting their lives from California to Australia.
Of course, it’s not as if they are still living the most normal of “normalized” lives, as Mark Wahlberg and his wife Rhea Durham purchased a $14.5 million mansion in Las Vegas when they moved. That would be a downsize for the couple, who owned a $87.5 million property when they lived in LA.
As for the movie itself, considering lots of projects have shifted filming out of California, it’s less necessary if you are a big name to be in a centralized hub, though the process of networking in Hollywood is still a prominent idea. But Wahlberg has big plans for Nevada, saying he’s hoping to get tax credits in order to make his new state “Hollywood 2.0.” He wants to build a studio and create other projects in his new home and noted:
We came here to give ourselves a new look, a fresh start for the kids. There’s lots of opportunity here. I’m really excited about the future.
A studio and more sound like pretty lofty plans, but he wouldn’t be the first actor to get into the more technical side of the business. Considering he’s already a pretty large producing force in Hollywood, having produced some of his own work (See: Joe Bell) but also some majorly popular projects like Ballers and Entourage, his own studio space may just be the next step. Wahlberg also said earlier this year he’s starting “a new chapter” in his career overall, and this move may be another reflection of that.
Though it sounds like the move hasn’t slowed down his acting gigs one iota, as Mark Wahlberg has at least four upcoming projects: The Six Billion Dollar Man, Arthur the King, Our Man From Jersey, The Family Plan.