Mark Wahlberg and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II stopped by CBS Mornings to talk about their new crime thriller “By All Means,” a story the pair say is drawn from real civil-rights-era killings in Mississippi. Wahlberg and Abdul-Mateen II described the project as a heavier, fact-rooted turn for both of them, and the segment quickly became one of the morning’s most-shared clips.
For Wahlberg, the film continues a run of grounded dramatic roles. One of Hollywood’s most bankable stars, he built an unusual career that began in music as Marky Mark before he moved into acclaimed screen work in Boogie Nights, The Departed and The Fighter, the boxing drama he also produced. Alongside those prestige titles he has anchored blockbuster franchises such as Transformers and Uncharted, and built a substantial second career as a film and television producer.
Abdul-Mateen II arrives with equally strong credentials. He won an Emmy for his role in HBO’s Watchmen and has since moved fluidly between studio tentpoles — playing Black Manta in Aquaman and appearing in The Matrix Resurrections — and auteur-driven films like Jordan Peele’s Us and the Candyman reboot. His pairing with Wahlberg adds another prestige credit to a fast-rising resume.
The role marks another entry in a recent stretch of more character-driven work for Wahlberg, who has balanced the faith-based passion project Father Stu with lighter studio fare such as the Netflix action-comedy The Union. For Abdul-Mateen II, whose credits also include Michael Bay’s Ambulance, the thriller continues a deliberate mix of big-budget spectacle and story-first drama.
The two framed “By All Means” as a passion project rooted in a true story that, they argued, deserves a wider audience. Its fact-based approach places it in the tradition of social dramas that revisit difficult chapters of American history, and both actors used the CBS appearance to build early awareness ahead of the film’s release.
