Mark Wahlberg Is Gaining 30 Pounds For Next Role, Will Eat Lots Of McDonald's And Drink Beer

Oscar-nominated actor Mark Wahlberg is known for his strict diet and exercise program, but he's throwing some of that out the window to prepare for his next movie role. He is playing Father Stuart Long, a boxer who became a priest.

Wahlberg told Jimmy Kimmel that, once the boxing scenes are finished for the new movie, which is called Father Stu, he plans to gain 30 pounds in six weeks to portray Long.

"After we do the boxing scenes, I get to put on as much weight as possible over the course of the film. I'm challenging myself to put on 30 pounds for the next six weeks," he said.

Wahlberg, who earned an Academy Award nomination for The Departed, said he's working with a trainer to try to put on the weight in a healthy way. But the actor said his game plan is simple: eat everything in sight.

"They want me to do it as healthy as possible. I'm like, 'Dude, I've been on such a regimen for so long. I just want to eat everything in sight,'" he said. "I want to go to bakeries. I want to go to Denny's. I want to get pancakes. I want to get everything that I can possibly get my hands on."

Wahlberg joked (?) that his first meal in his bulking phase will be a 20-piece McNugget pack with KFC and a six-pack of beer to wash it down.

Wahlberg is working on the Father Stu movie alongside Mel Gibson, who will play Long's father, just as he did in Daddy's Home 2. The script is written by Gibson's partner, Rosalind Ross, who is also directing. Teresa Ruiz, who starred on Narcos: Mexico, is also lined up to appear in Father Stu.

"The story is one of grit, faith and redemption. Long was an angry young man, alienating both students and priests at the Catholic college he attended, turning to boxing as a release. A hoped-for career didn't take off thanks to a broken jaw so he moved to L.A. for a career in the movies. Even that wasn't working out when one evening he suffered a horrible motorcycle accident--he was hit by one car, then run over by another," reads a line from the film's description (via The Hollywood Reporter). "In the hospital, according to reports, he had an out of body experience and rediscovered his faith and enlisted in Mount Angel Seminary in Oregon."

Long was later diagnosed with a degenerative muscle disease and he passed away in 2014. "When he passed away in 2014, many were looking to him as an example of faith and love overcoming pain and hardship," THR said.