Shane Black speaks on casting Mark Wahlberg in Play Dirty: “He knows what makes people tick”

September 24, 2025 - 5:22 PM IST

Seven years. That’s how long Iron Man 3’s director Shane Black stayed away from the director’s chair, and now he’s back with a story that’s worth all the wait. With Play Dirty, his upcoming action-thriller film on Prime Video, Black strips crime drama to its core and hands it to Parker, played by BAFTA Award winner Mark Wahlberg, who’s as fascinating as he is ruthless. While other movie criminals rappel down skyscrapers with high-tech gear, Parker figures out what makes people tick and use that knowledge like a weapon. No fancy gadgets, no death-defying stunts, just pure, calculated moves that hit where it hurts the most. Ahead of the film’s global premiere, Black breaks down what made Wahlberg the right fit to sell Parker’s ruthlessness, and how he delivered exactly that brand of likeable menace.

Shane Black speaks on casting Mark Wahlberg in Play Dirty: “He knows what makes people tick”

Sharing insights about Wahlberg’s character, Shane Black highlights, “Parker is an old-school organizer who does things based on psychology, not technology. He’s not a state-of-the-art criminal sliding down the outside of a building on a cable wearing a headset and laser binoculars. There are no fighters who do flips and balletic moves and walk-overs and spin-kicks in this story. He figures out what makes people tick and how to either work with them or thwart them. Westlake [the author] himself referred to him as being like a plumber, but with crime. He solves problems without any emotional connection. He’s not there to be anybody’s friend. He knows a lot, he gets the job done and he’s better at it than anybody else. Maybe he’s not a great guy, but he’s an interesting guy.”

Reflecting on casting Wahlberg, and what made him the perfect fit for Parker, Black adds, “Mark Wahlberg is in many ways that blue-collar guy. He represents quiet competence. When you’re doing a movie about a guy who’s somewhat robotic and quite brutal, you don’t want to cast someone who’s entirely unlikable. Mark has a very human quality even when he plays an action character. He has a sort of gravitas when it comes to appealing to the largest number of people.”

Based on Donald E. Westlake’s ‘Parker’ book series, Play Dirty is co-written and directed by Shane Black. The story follows Wahlberg as Parker, a criminal who, after being betrayed and nearly killed, turns his quest for payback into an opportunity for the most ambitious heist of his life. Teaming up with his partner, Grofield (Stanfield), Parker must outwit a South American dictator, the New York mafia, and one of the wealthiest men on the planet if he wants to survive. With Mark Wahlberg in the lead, the film also stars LaKeith Stanfield, Rosa Salazar, Keegan-Michael Key, Chukwudi Iwuji, Nat Wolff, and Thomas Jane in key roles. The crime drama will be available to stream exclusively on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide from October 1.

Also Read: Robert Downey Jr. and Shane Black to launch Parker franchise with Play Dirty movie; Iron Man actor to star as Parker