‘You want fame?’ barked drama school instructor Lydia Grant at her fresh-faced young wannabes in the hit ‘80s TV series Fame, ‘well fame costs, and right here is where you start paying: in sweat.’
Little did they know quite how much sweat is actually required to be a star.
In fact, little did anyone really know until today when actor Mark Wahlberg revealed his insane daily exercise routine to an incredulous world of comparatively lazy slobs.
![Mark Wahlberg has revealed just how much effort it takes to be him](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/newpix/2018/09/12/17/500CC7A400000578-6160303-Mark_Wahlberg_has_revealed_just_how_much_effort_it_takes_to_be_h-a-15_1536769560509.jpg)
Mark Wahlberg has revealed just how much effort it takes to be him
During a Q&A with fans on Instagram, the Hollywood actor suddenly unveiled his ‘typical daily schedule’.
It read as follows:
‘2.30am wake up
2.45 prayer time
3.15am breakfast
3.40-5.15am workout
5.30am post-workout meal
6.00am shower
7.30am golf
8.00am snack
9.30am cyro chamber recovery
10.30am snack
11.00am family time/meetings/work calls
1.00pm lunch
2.00pm meeting/work calls
3.00pm pick up kids & school
3.30pm snack
4.00pm workout #2
5.00pm shower
5.30pm dinner/family time
7.30pm bedtime’
Yikes.
Just typing all this out was exhausting, let alone contemplating having to actually do it.
As Wahlberg’s post promptly went viral, many assumed it must be some kind of joke.
Surely nobody could possibly lead such a preposterous self-torturing lifestyle?
They can.
Wahlberg does.
Six days a week, every week, every month, every year.
I know this because several years ago he invited me to dinner at his palatial home in Beverly Park, Los Angeles, showed me his massive underground gym (it’s the size of a small aircraft hangar), and told me.
![I know this routine is real. Several years ago he invited me to dinner at his palatial home in Beverly Park, Los Angeles, showed me his massive underground gym (it’s the size of a small aircraft hangar), and told me. He only rests on Sundays because he’s a devout Catholic](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/newpix/2018/09/12/13/5012B70700000578-6157085-image-a-66_1536754594062.jpg)
I know this routine is real. Several years ago he invited me to dinner at his palatial home in Beverly Park, Los Angeles, showed me his massive underground gym (it’s the size of a small aircraft hangar), and told me. He only rests on Sundays because he’s a devout Catholic
(When he’s away filming, his schedule gets even more insane. He said: ‘I wake at 2.30am, and do an hour’s hard workout from 3am to 4am, with ten-second breaks. Then we drive to a local basketball court and do two-on-two for an hour. I come back to the hotel at 6am and have a plate of chicken and vegetables before heading to the set around 7am. I do 500 sit-ups through the day in my trailer to keep fresh. I finish at 6pm, go back to the hotel and do 45 minutes boxing. Then eat and go to bed by 8pm.’)
Wahlberg only rests on Sundays because he’s a devout Catholic and goes to church instead.
I asked him why he puts himself through such mind-blowing physical abuse.
He was blunt: ‘If you want to be really successful in this business, and stay there, that’s what it takes.’
Given that Wahlberg is one of the world’s most bankable film stars (he told me he nicknamed his mansion “Ted” after buying it with the proceeds of that billion dollar movie franchise), he’s clearly reaping very large rewards from the sowing of all that self-punishment.
But at what cost?
It’s a question I’ve pondered many times over the 30 years I’ve interviewed big stars, many of whom go to ridiculous lengths to preserve their ‘camera-ready’ images.
They die their hair, slice up their faces, Botox their foreheads into creaseless early-embalmment, and lipo-suck their stomachs.
And that’s just the normal stuff.
For female stars in particular, the pressure to be skinny or youthful drives them to do stupid or dangerous things.
Gwyneth Paltrow stings herself with bees. ‘It gets rid of inflammation and scarring,’ she explained, though she later admitted: ‘Man, it’s painful.’
Salma Hayek puts guacamole, egg yolk and mayonnaise in her hair, Katie Holmes smears her head in snail slime, Victoria Beckham endures bird poo facials and Kim Kardashian posted pictures of herself undergoing a Vampire Facelift where blood is drawn from a victim’s arm and injected into the face to prevent wrinkles.
![For female stars in particular, the pressure to be skinny or youthful drives them to do stupid or dangerous things, like Kim Kardashian undergoing a Vampire Facelift](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/newpix/2018/09/12/17/30F138D200000578-6160303-image-a-2_1536768725488.jpg)
For female stars in particular, the pressure to be skinny or youthful drives them to do stupid or dangerous things, like Kim Kardashian undergoing a Vampire Facelift
Anything and everything to prevent the career-wrecking onset of old age.
When I interviewed Janet Jackson for CNN, she told me, with undisguised horror on her face, that many famous women she knows eat Kleenex tissue paper to fill their stomachs and deter them from eating food.
Imagine wanting fame that much?
I can’t – I’d rather use Kleenex to wipe the béarnaise sauce off my lips as I devour a 20lb bone-in rib eye steak while simultaneously guzzling a nice bottle of Chateau Latour.
For many actors though, food is not the fuel for life, it’s the professional enemy.
When he played an AIDS sufferer in Dallas Buyers Club, Matthew McConaughey lost 47lbs in four months by starving himself on a daily diet of just two egg whites, a bit of chicken, a spoonful of pudding and two Diet Cokes.
It won him an Oscar but wow… he’s never getting those months back, is he?
![Michael Phelps went five years without taking a single day off training. That's 20 years of birthdays, weddings, Thanksgivings and Christmas. Is anything worth it?](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/newpix/2018/09/12/17/3766F11C00000578-6160303-Michael_Phelps_went_five_years_without_taking_a_single_day_off_t-a-6_1536768963129.jpg)
Michael Phelps went five years without taking a single day off training. That’s 20 years of birthdays, weddings, Thanksgivings and Christmas. Is anything worth it?
It’s not just actors who do this kind of thing to themselves.
Sportsmen all push themselves hard, but the really great ones go to ridiculous lengths to give themselves the edge.
Olympic swimming icon Michael Phelps told me he once went five consecutive years without a single day off from training. That’s 1825 days, with 6-8 hours of work a day in and out of the pool.
‘Do you know anyone else who has ever done that?’ I asked him.
‘No,’ he replied.
As with Wahlberg, his motivation was simple: ‘If you want to be the best, you have to be willing to do the things other people aren’t willing to do. I was getting 52 days more training than anyone else I was competing against.’
For Phelps, his reward was more Gold medals than anyone in history. But to achieve that, he sacrificed 20 years of partying with friends and family events like birthdays, weddings, Thanksgivings and Christmas.
Is ANYTHING really worth that?
Mark Wahlberg is one of the most normal big stars I know; he’s very happily married with four children, has the same circle of loyal friends he’s had since he was a young man, and suffers from none of the false affectations or regular outbursts of outrageous ego that so often infest a major celebrity.
![Mark Wahlberg is one of the most normal big stars I know; he’s happily married with four kids, shown here last Christmas, has the same circle of loyal friends he’s had since he was young](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/newpix/2018/09/12/17/5016047D00000578-6160303-image-a-9_1536769411940.jpg)
Mark Wahlberg is one of the most normal big stars I know; he’s happily married with four kids, shown here last Christmas, has the same circle of loyal friends he’s had since he was young
From my experience, he’s a regular down-to-earth guy (albeit one who matured from a violent, troublesome, criminal upbringing) whose talent and work ethic has brought him massive success, fame and wealth.
But I couldn’t do what he does every day, could you?
Don’t get me wrong: I want fame, and I’ve had a reasonably pleasurable taste of it.
It’s fun, exciting and opens up all sorts of doors – like to first class plane cabins, brand new Aston Martins and the best restaurants in towns.
But for me, there’s a limit to just how much I want it, and just how far I’m prepared to sweat for it.
My regime for today for example will end up something like this:
4.45am wake up and head to Good Morning Britain’s TV studios in London
5.30am 1st breakfast
6-8.30am sit at a desk arguing with people.
9am 2nd breakfast
10am spinning class or swim (if I can be bothered..)
11am sleep
12pm argue with people on Twitter
1pm lunch
2pm sit at a desk writing argumentative columns for Daily Mail.
5pm argue with people on Twitter about my columns
6pm pub for a pint
7pm dinner
8pm watch TV
9.45pm sleep
![My daily regime's plus side is that it involves very little physical hard work, and I think I can also legitimately claim to be a world-class arguer. But it doesn't pay as well as Ted](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/newpix/2018/09/12/17/5011CDB100000578-6160303-My_daily_regime_s_plus_side_is_that_it_involves_very_little_phys-m-16_1536769817284.jpg)
My daily regime’s plus side is that it involves very little physical hard work, and I think I can also legitimately claim to be a world-class arguer. But it doesn’t pay as well as
The plus side is that it involves very little physical hard work, and I think I can also legitimately claim to be a world-class arguer.
The down side is that this doesn’t pay quite as well as being a movie superstar or record-breaking Olympic Gold medal champion.
But I know in my heart I just don’t have what it takes to be a Phelps or Mark Wahlberg (before the inevitable mockery lights up for even attempting to put myself in the same celebrity bracket as him, let me remind you that I’ve been in eight movies which have grossed $1.8 billion, including Entourage in which I had a bigger part than Mr Wahlberg..)
I simply don’t want to sweat that much, well not unless it includes the kind of sweat you get with a ferocious hangover after a fantastic party.
Nor do I want to sting myself with bees, pay a plastic surgeon a small fortune to chop off my jowls, or live off diet cokes and egg whites.
The bottom line is this: I like and admire Mark Wahlberg, but having seen his daily schedule, I have zero desire to actually be him.
Frankly, if that’s what fame costs – I ain’t paying.