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CNN Live Today

Interview with Donnie Wahlberg

Aired February 27, 2003 - 10:51   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Boom times now for actor Donnie Wahlberg. He's certainly come a long way since his teen years in the pop group New Kids on the Block. You might recall his portrayal of Lieutenant Carward Lipton (ph) in the critically acclaimed HBO miniseries "Band of Brothers."
Right now, his project include both the big and small screens, with the TV series "Boomtown," also a new film coming out, "Dreamcatchers."

Donnie Wahlberg, joining us from New York for today's eye on entertainment. Thank

Donnie, good morning. Thanks for being with us.

DONNIE WAHLBERG, ACTOR: Good morning. Thank you. I'm glad to be here.

KAGAN: I was looking over your list of projects, and I was thinking, this a guy who likes to mess with our minds, including "Dreamcathcer," which is adapted from a Stephen King novel?

WAHLBERG: Yes, I don't really want to mess with people's minds, just these roles seem to gravitate towards me.

KAGAN: They find you.

WAHLBERG: Yes, they do find me. I'd like to play a normal kind of decent looking leading man every now and then, but I take what I can get, as long as it's good.

KAGAN: But there are some bad dream aspects to "Dreamcatcher?"

WAHLBERG: Very bad dream. Yes, there's a lot to be scared of in "Dreamcatcher," but the interesting this is Lawrence Kasdan wrote the film, who he's known for writing "Body Heat," and "The Big Chill" and "Silverado," and really adult, you know, ensemble films with great characters, and so that's what we have with "Dreamcatcher." It's a wonderful ensemble peace, and then all hell breaks lose, and it becomes a complete nightmare.

KAGAN: There you go.

And so as I understand it, the way Hollywood works, you are working on that movie, which is coming out now, when you were offered "Boomtown," which has already been on for some amount of time, and is now relaunching this Sunday, is that correct? WAHLBERG: Yes, I was shooting "Dreamcatcher" last year in February of last year, one year ago now, and during the first few weeks I got a call about "Boomtown" from Graham Yost (ph) who wrote an episodes of "Band of Brothers" that I was featured in, and he asked me if I would take part in "Boomtown," and when I read it, I was just blown away by it, and I had a three-week hiatus from "Dreamcatcher" in the middle of shooting that I could go away, and so I went, shot "Boomtown," and then finished "Dreamcatcher," and they're now coming out again in March. "Boomtown" is relaunching Sunday night.

KAGAN: What is a relaunch for us non-Hollywood types?

WAHLBERG: I don't know. I've never heard of it either. But what happened is the show, we came off the air for six weeks for the Golden Globes and for the Emmys and for a three-week run of "Kingpin," so NBC is bringing the show back to finish the season, and a lot of people thought we were canceled and didn't really know what was going on, so we're doing a lot of publicity and really reintroducing people to the show this Sunday night. And what NBC is also doing, is they're airing original 12 episodes that have already aired on Bravo on Sunday morning in a marathon from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., and then at 10:00 p.m. you switch over to NBC and you get the most recent episode.

KAGAN: Twelve hours of "Boomtown" and Donnie Wahlberg -- who could ask for more?

WAHLBERG: I don't know.

KAGAN: Good luck with the relaunch and with the movie, and thanks for making time to stop by. You're a busy guy.

WAHLBERG: Thank you.

KAGAN: Donnie Wahlberg, thank you so much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired February 27, 2003 - 10:51   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Boom times now for actor Donnie Wahlberg. He's certainly come a long way since his teen years in the pop group New Kids on the Block. You might recall his portrayal of Lieutenant Carward Lipton (ph) in the critically acclaimed HBO miniseries "Band of Brothers."
Right now, his project include both the big and small screens, with the TV series "Boomtown," also a new film coming out, "Dreamcatchers."

Donnie Wahlberg, joining us from New York for today's eye on entertainment. Thank

Donnie, good morning. Thanks for being with us.

DONNIE WAHLBERG, ACTOR: Good morning. Thank you. I'm glad to be here.

KAGAN: I was looking over your list of projects, and I was thinking, this a guy who likes to mess with our minds, including "Dreamcathcer," which is adapted from a Stephen King novel?

WAHLBERG: Yes, I don't really want to mess with people's minds, just these roles seem to gravitate towards me.

KAGAN: They find you.

WAHLBERG: Yes, they do find me. I'd like to play a normal kind of decent looking leading man every now and then, but I take what I can get, as long as it's good.

KAGAN: But there are some bad dream aspects to "Dreamcatcher?"

WAHLBERG: Very bad dream. Yes, there's a lot to be scared of in "Dreamcatcher," but the interesting this is Lawrence Kasdan wrote the film, who he's known for writing "Body Heat," and "The Big Chill" and "Silverado," and really adult, you know, ensemble films with great characters, and so that's what we have with "Dreamcatcher." It's a wonderful ensemble peace, and then all hell breaks lose, and it becomes a complete nightmare.

KAGAN: There you go.

And so as I understand it, the way Hollywood works, you are working on that movie, which is coming out now, when you were offered "Boomtown," which has already been on for some amount of time, and is now relaunching this Sunday, is that correct? WAHLBERG: Yes, I was shooting "Dreamcatcher" last year in February of last year, one year ago now, and during the first few weeks I got a call about "Boomtown" from Graham Yost (ph) who wrote an episodes of "Band of Brothers" that I was featured in, and he asked me if I would take part in "Boomtown," and when I read it, I was just blown away by it, and I had a three-week hiatus from "Dreamcatcher" in the middle of shooting that I could go away, and so I went, shot "Boomtown," and then finished "Dreamcatcher," and they're now coming out again in March. "Boomtown" is relaunching Sunday night.

KAGAN: What is a relaunch for us non-Hollywood types?

WAHLBERG: I don't know. I've never heard of it either. But what happened is the show, we came off the air for six weeks for the Golden Globes and for the Emmys and for a three-week run of "Kingpin," so NBC is bringing the show back to finish the season, and a lot of people thought we were canceled and didn't really know what was going on, so we're doing a lot of publicity and really reintroducing people to the show this Sunday night. And what NBC is also doing, is they're airing original 12 episodes that have already aired on Bravo on Sunday morning in a marathon from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., and then at 10:00 p.m. you switch over to NBC and you get the most recent episode.

KAGAN: Twelve hours of "Boomtown" and Donnie Wahlberg -- who could ask for more?

WAHLBERG: I don't know.

KAGAN: Good luck with the relaunch and with the movie, and thanks for making time to stop by. You're a busy guy.

WAHLBERG: Thank you.

KAGAN: Donnie Wahlberg, thank you so much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com