LOS ANGELES?Mark Wahlberg plays boxer ?Irish? Mickey Ward in the coming film ?The Fighter.? Who did he study to come across as a convincing pugilist? Filipino boxing champ Manny Pacquiao.

?I would love for Manny to see the movie,? Mark said of the biopic drama about Mickey and his Rocky-like rise to the world light welterweight title in the mid-1980s. ?The Fighter,? directed by David O. Russell, co-stars Christian Bale as Dickie Eklund, who helped train his brother.

As part of his research for the role, Mark, a friend of Manny?s, observed Pacman whenever he was training in LA. ?I would go to the gym to study Manny all the time,? the actor said in an interview at the Ritz Carlton in Cancun, Mexico. ?Every time he was training at Wild Card Gym, I watched him because my whole approach was, I wanted to look like a Manny Pacquiao-caliber fighter. I didn?t want to look like another actor who?s doing an okay job. Manny is the best in the world. Who better to learn from??

Mark added that he wanted the film?s set to look like the real deal: ?We used the HBO cameras that shoot pay-per-view events. We went in there and we really did it. We really fought and it was not fun. I still thank God to this day that I got out without any real injuries.?

?The Fighter? will not be shown until the awards season in December. But in the meantime, Mark took a break from dramatic roles by acting opposite Will Ferrell in ?The Other Guys.? The two play mismatched, second-string New York cops (the city?s star police officers are portrayed by Dwayne ?The Rock? Johnson and Samuel L. Jackson).

Mark is a macho detective with a short fuse while Ferrell is nerdy, whose idea of action is doing paperwork on his desk. The two play it straight, resulting in amusing arguments about a lion fighting a tuna, for example. Not a few critics commented that Mark seems to be parodying his humorless detective in ?The Departed.?

Will?s geeky Allen Gamble is totally oblivious of the seductive beauty of his wife, played by Eva Mendes who makes fun of her sexy image. Mark?s Terry Hoitz is incredulous that his partner is married to such a stunner and lusts after her.

?The Other Guys,? which has already grossed over $100 million at the box office, is Will?s first team- up with director Adam McKay since their ?Talladega Nights,? ?Anchorman? and ?Step Brothers.?

Mark explained why it took so long for him to be in a comedy: ?I?ve always wanted to do a comedy but coming from a dramatic background, if you do a comedy and you don?t do a good job or the movie?s not good, you won?t get a chance to do another one. So I was very patient in finding the right thing and very particular about which one I choose. Actually, it chose me. Will Ferrell and Adam McKay asked me to go to dinner with them. They said we want to do a movie with you. I said, ?I?m in.? They said, ?Well, don?t you want to hear the idea?? I said, ?I don?t need to. I trust you guys completely.?

Different side

?Then three months later, they sent me this script with a role that was right up my alley, that was in my comfort zone but enough for me to show people a different side of me. They were high on improvising. I felt very privileged to be part of it.?

The actor noted with amusement that this is the second time in a movie that he didn?t get Eva as his leading lady. He said, ?I did a movie, ?We Own The Night,? with Eva and Joaquin Phoenix was her boyfriend. At one point, I could have played that part and I didn?t. I messed up. Now Will Ferrell is playing her husband. I am like, what?s going on?

?Not that Eva would be interested in me in any way. I have a beautiful wife. I didn?t want to get in any kind of trouble. So it was perfect. I always thought that could be the funniest part for me. My character becomes obsessed with how this guy got this beautiful girl. But after getting to know Will, I realized why he has such a beautiful wife in real life and why so many women like him. He is a good-looking guy but he?s also very charming and endearing.?

We could imagine how hard it is to keep a straight face beside Will, especially when he is dishing ad lib lines in his deadpan manner. ?I always feel bad whenever I ruin a take but they love it,? Mark admitted. ?Part of their (Will and Adam?s) goal is to make you laugh. They want the audience to laugh. I promised myself going in, during the rehearsals, that I wasn?t going to laugh. But you just look at Will?s face and you start laughing. He?s quick on his feet. I?m pretty quick on my feet. But this is what Will does. The only person who?s funnier than Will is Adam, the writer-director. He is a very funny guy. The two of them together is dangerous.?

Mark may find it hard to suppress his laughter during his takes with Will. But according to Eva, who looked gorgeous in a sun dress in the Cancun setting, Mark is the tough one to tickle. ?I didn?t break Mark,? she confessed. ?He was tough to break.?

Of his dour detective character, Mark said, ?Below the surface, he?s actually vulnerable and needs a little bit of love. He needs a hug. I just played it as real as possible. Any movie that I?ve done until this point, if anybody thought there were moments that were funny, it was because of my level of commitment to play it real, no matter how absurd it was. Will would always say that he was actually the straight guy and I was the comedy guy because my character was so crazy. They did a good job writing my part.?

No fear

There was one element of filming ?The Other Guys? that Mark didn?t find daunting ? the action scenes. ?I?ve done so many action movies that it was Will and those guys who panicked because they?ve never done it before,? he said with a smile. ?Like I see him hold a gun and he was like, ?Do you hold it like this?? But it?s weird because I had them help me with comedic stuff. With the action stuff, they would always refer to me.?

Now a devoted family man with a strong Catholic faith, Mark, whose problem-plagued youth included a prison term, acknowledged several turning points in his life. He said, ?There are so many ? getting in trouble, having my first child. I?ve had second and third chances in life. I realized that there is an opportunity for me to do a lot of good and influence kids growing up in similar situations that I grew up in, to get them on the right path, be positive and productive...?

E-mail the columnist at rvnepales_5585@yahoo.com.