In order to stay focused, he formed a band called Marky Mark and the Funk Bunch. Their first album, "Music for the People," was a huge hit in 1991 and spawned two hit singles, "Good Vibrations" and "Wildside." A highly exposed stint as a Calvin Klein underwear model followed, then a workout video ("The Marky Mark Workout") and, in 1992, an autobiographical picture book. The following year, however, the Marky Mark phenomenon crashed when the press discovered racist incidents in his youth, just as he was meeting accusations of homophobia. In the mid-90s, however, he reinvented himself as Mark Wahlberg - the serious actor. With critically acclaimed films like 'The Basketball Diaries', 'Boogie Nights' and 'Three Kings' and last year's megahit 'The Perfect Storm', Wahlberg has turned himself into an international film star. 'Planet of the Apes' will without doubt place him on Hollywood's A-list.
"I look in the mirror sometimes and wonder how the hell I've attained this much success in my lifetime, but I don't try to analyse it," he says of his journey from running wild on the streets of Boston to respected actor. "I continue to work on being a better person, that's my full-time job. I'm being put in situations and it would be a shame not to use them really help other people." "I'd like to see kids not have to go through the hard route I went," continues the actor, who now helps young people in his old neighbourhood. Mark returns occasionally to speak at the local Boys Club that banned him, supposedly for life, at age 12. He is also close to his nine nieces and nephews, for whom he has already set aside money for college tuition. Many of his friends from the neighbourhood are working for him in Los Angeles. He is also about to earn his high school equivalence degree after studying for several years.
"It's embarrassing that I didn't graduate from high school and I don't want kids to think if I didn't graduate, why should they? I tell them I'm still going to school and so should they." Although he has finished two more films; as rock star in 'Rockstar' and the Cary Grant role in Jonathan Demme's remake of the romantic thriller 'Charade', Wahlberg has not totally shed his 'Planet of the Apes' role.
"I'm still having dreams about gorillas," he smiles. "I dream that I'm in prison with a bunch of apes."

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'Planet Of The Apes', starring Mark Wahlberg, Tim Roth, Helena Bonham Carter and Michael Clarke Duncan, and directed by Tim Burton, opens in the UK on August 17th