10 years ago, nobody was mentioning Mark Wahlberg and Oscar in the same sentence. As he was crossing over from music and his alter ego Marky Mark (with his “Funky Bunch”), he was just trying to avoid the typecast of musicians turned hack actors.

He quickly proved himself though, with acclaimed work in The Basketball Diaries and Boogie Nights.

”I’d still be waiting on my record contract,” reflected Wahlberg on taking the risk. “I was waiting it out and wanted to do what I wanted to do, not what they wanted me to do. But I focused all my attention on acting from day one and put blinders on, really didn’t stray away. I made a couple records overseas and did a couple of tours, just so I wouldn’t have to make a movie for the money, because I started living a pretty expensive lifestyle. In order to even just keep the house and the car that I had, I had to pay the bills, so I found other ways to do it. But it was always just about making movies and trying to grow as an actor and work with good people.”

Though he did not receive Oscar nominations for either film, he balanced such dramatic material with crowd-pleasing favorites like The Perfect Storm, The Italian Job and Invincible. His latest film, Shooter, directed by the talented Antoine Fuquais, a shoot ‘em up actioner as the title suggests, but coming after The Departed, it’s time to feed the machine. One for Hollywood, one for Mark is not an uncommon bargain in the industry.

”I think that one and two are better,” he concluded. “One for them and two for you, but it really depends because it’s a juggling act and it’s all about making the right choices and being in the position to make those choices.”

Shooter casts Wahlberg as Bob Lee Swagger, the hero in a series of novels by Stephen Hunter. In this adventure, the government enlists the retired sniper to help them thwart an assassination, but frames him instead. Naturally, Swagger must use all his physical skills to bring down this conspiracy.

These vigilante tales are popular in fiction, but surprisingly, in real life the hunky Wahlberg tries to be a good Catholic. “I went to church today and I’m in a really good mood and giving people the benefit of the doubt, that people are honest and honorable,” said the actor during a Sunday afternoon interview. “Ask me again tomorrow or Tuesday and it might be different. No, I would hate to be put in a situation where I had to do something like that. God forbid, if something happened to my children or something happened to someone who couldn’t defend themselves, I don’t think that I would be that quick to be reasonable or be so forgiving, but that’s what I’m supposed to do and that’s what I practice.”

The family man is also being good and following the rules of this month’s Lent. “Yeah, no meat on Fridays and I haven’t had any beer, but I don’t necessarily try to give things up as opposed to focus on doing better. Being more patient, being more generous, being more honest. Those are the things that I try to do and I remind myself of those things everyday when I say my prayers.”

He is also trying to choose his work carefully. Though some of his films are very R-rated, including Shooter for all its violence, Wahlberg is taking family into consideration. “Well, it’s easier to explain to my children than Boogie Nights, that’s for sure. I’m not going to make any more movies like that. At the right time we’ll have to explain this and it’ll be easier.”

Wahlberg tries not to disparage his classic porno period piece, but thinks one is enough. “I love Boogie Nights and I was really worried about what my mom thought but she got it; my mom is old enough to understand that, A, it’s a movie and that B, [pornography] is just a world that those people live in but they’re just really nice people. But kids can be tough. High school can be like a lifetime and I don’t want my daughter to be subject to ridicule because of the decisions that I made when I was 25 and really wasn’t thinking straight.”

Admittedly a wild youth, Wahlberg grew up on the streets of Boston with his older brother, “New Kids on the Block”’s Donnie Wahlberg, who got him into music as a healthy outlet. Now, his own kids are all Mark needs to stay in line. Wahlberg has two children with Rhea Durham: daughter Ella Rae born on September 2, 2003; and son Michael, born on March 22, 2006

”Just when they smile or they give you a hug, the amount of love that you feel and the amount of satisfaction that you feel, it really just puts everything into perspective. Your priorities change immediately. I have a couple more years to focus on me, but obviously the older they get the more attention that they’re going to need from me, but it’s the best thing ever.”

There are no regrets for some of the rougher patches, because without them, Wahlberg might not have the success he enjoys today. “I wouldn’t do anything differently. There were a couple of nights when I was 16 or 17 when I would have stayed in the house and watched television, but I think everything happened for a reason. If I grew up out here and my family was normal and I went to a great school, I don’t think I would be the person that I am today. It was a tough road getting to where I am, but looking back now, it seems like nothing.”

His Shooter character goes through some tough times as well. Swagger is under fire for most of the movie, and takes a couple bullets in his escape. “Playing up the pain makes you feel kind of silly always. It’s like, ‘What’s going to be seen as real and what’s not?’ We didn’t shoot it in order and we were kind of jumping around constantly and being able to go back and look at stuff and remember what level of pain I was in at the time or how close to death he was getting.”

Luckily, the stunt-filled adventure was injury free. “Compared to Invincible, it was nothing. It was a walk in the park. But getting down to be as thin as I was for the movie, that was difficult. Then of course, there was all the mental prep, learning everything that snipers need to know in the short amount of time that we had. It was a lot of running and jumping in this one.”

At least Wahlberg left the experience with some new skills. “I could shoot pretty good before, but I had never gone through sniper training before, and yeah, I can hit a target at like 1,500 to 2,000 yards.”

Shooter may be a crowd pleaser but the reality is it’s not the kind of movie that generates acclaim, like The Departed, which earned Wahlberg his first Oscar nomination. That’s fine with him. “I never made a movie because I thought that I might have a chance to be nominated. I mean, being in a movie with Marty (Scorcese) was just a chance to work with Marty and I thought that the script was great. I just tried to do something different and hope that people enjoy the films and see what happens. Anything else that happens after that is just icing on the cake.”

Though he stood out in the film from a pack of heavyweights including Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon and Jack Nicholson, Wahlberg didn’t win on his first night at the big show, but did get to party with Martin Scorsese after his first win after decades of work.

”I did as much partying as I could and I was still home before 12. My kids are up really early in the morning and I didn’t want to deal with my daughter’s energy while having a hangover. She’s great, and that’s a good reason to keep sober, but we went out and had dinner afterwards, and then we went to one party with Marty and everyone. I heard Marty stayed out until like Six in the morning. I wonder what that was like? I know he was with Leo and I know what that’s like!”

As years of jokes about the flashes in the pan who have won Oscars over Scorsese came to an end, Wahlberg got to experience a part of Hollywood history. “He certainly tried to downplay it like it wasn’t that big of a deal, but I hadn’t ever seen Marty that happy. So it was nice. Based on his body of work I would assume that he would have a house full of those things, but it’s his first one. So to be a part of it was really fun.”

For the actor, it really was an honor just to be nominated. “I had never been nominated before. There were talks of it once or twice before in my career and I had always played it off like it wasn’t that big of a deal. Then when I got the phone call it was a very big deal. I was able to call my parents and share the news with them. It was a fun time.”

Still, he always pulls for his friends. As an Academy member, Wahlberg tried to nominate his Invincible co-star. “I actually voted for Greg Kinnear instead of myself in the first go-round, but it’s fine.”

Shooter opens in theatres everywhere on March 21!