The hit film Everything Everywhere All at Once won the Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture award during the 2023 SAG Awards. The ceremony chose none other than actor Mark Wahlberg to present the award. However, because of Wahlberg’s past, Mark Wahlberg is now facing quite a bit of backlash online.
The actor actually faced time in jail after having attacked two Vietnamese-American men in 1988. He was initially sentenced to a two-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to felony assault. He served 45 days of his sentence before being released.
Mark Wahlberg has since attempted to apologize for the attacks. Additionally, in 2014, he attempted to have a pardon for his attack. Though he stopped the request in 2016. Now, as you can see below, viewers of the SAG Awards were shocked that Mark Wahlberg was still chosen to present the awards to an Asian cast, which explains the backlash:
mark wahlberg (who’s committed multiple hate crimes including against asian people) giving sag ensemble prize to a predominantly asian cast is genuinely such an embarrassing thing for hollywood to do
— blue (@thehornsections) February 27, 2023
I gotta say, having Mark Wahlberg, who literally went to jail as a teen for committing a hate crime against a Vietnamese man, present an award to the cast of Everything Everywhere All At Once was certainly a choice
— Bonnie Stiernberg (@aahrealbonsters) February 27, 2023
Wow these #SAGAwards are going really well. What could go wrong?
Mark Wahlberg: pic.twitter.com/Xu08GF7Ptp
— Joe (@Cinema_Joe23) February 27, 2023
Mark Wahlberg? A choice#SAGAwards
— Wilf Lucas (@wilflucas) February 27, 2023
They really had mark wahlberg whom got arrested for beating up a Vietnamese man a long time ago present best ensemble to an film with a lot of Chinese American actors in it #SAGAwards pic.twitter.com/H89t5SxpJ1
— BLACK LIVES MATTER (@willowhalliwell) February 27, 2023
Friendly reminder that Mark Wahlberg violently attacked two Vietnamese men and I think it is quite obtuse that he was the one to announce Everything Everywhere All At Once as the winner of the SAG award tonight.
— Brian (@WeActuallyDidIt) February 27, 2023
It must have been quite a shock for Mark Wahlberg to witness a group of Asians beating white people #SAGAwards2023 pic.twitter.com/ZS5wW3cg5s
— Jeff Yang (@originalspin) February 27, 2023
It’s certainly great to see that Everything Everywhere All at Once was able to win the award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. Unfortunately, it looks like the choice of having Mark Wahlberg present the award just does not sit right with many of the ceremony’s viewers.
Everything Everywhere All at Once was written and directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert. The cast for the film includes Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, Jenny Slate, Harry Shum Jr., James Hong, and Jamie Lee Curtis. In addition to its win at the SAG Awards, the film received 11 nominations at the 95th Academy Awards. The nominations include Best Picture. As a result, Everything Everywhere All at Once has become the most nominated film of the ceremony. Hopefully the film and everyone behind it can continue to find such awesome success.
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