Actor Mark Wahlberg was there to present the ultimate award at the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday night, the one for the good ensemble to the predominantly Asian cast of Everything Everywhere All at Once. The move was criticized by many, as many were puzzled about the decision of the SAG awards for giving the actor to give the award which went to jail for committing hate crimes towards Asian men when he was 16 years old.
The 51-year-old actor confronted a lot of backlashes online for handing out the night’s last award to a movie with a predominantly Asian and Asian American solid. In 1988, when the actor was 16 years old, Mark attacked two Vietnamese guys trying to thieve beer near his domestic in Dorchester, Massachusetts. He hit a man named Thanh Lam with a five-foot wooden stick, after which he was hospitalized. He then approached another Vietnamese man named Hoa Trinh and punched him in the eye. He also used expressive language and made crude comments in opposition to Asians. The actor claimed that race wasn’t an element within the attack and served 45 days of his two-year sentence. Not only this, Mark additionally announced the film “Women Talking” as “Women Are Talking,” at some stage in his study-out of the nominees.
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
The actor later apologized for the 1988 assault on Lam and Trinh. “I spent 28 years righting the wrong. I didn’t need a piece of paper to acknowledge it. I was kind of pushed into doing it, I certainly didn’t need to or want to relive that stuff over again,” he had said to The Wrap. Many viewers slammed the decision to have the actor present in the first place. Reporter Bonnie Stiernberg tweeted, “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.” Another tweet read, “REALLY interesting that Will Smith wasn’t invited to present Best Actress while Mark Wahlberg is presenting the ensemble award to a film with a predominantly Asian cast when he punched and nearly blinded a Vietnamese man..”
