Mark Wahlberg Hearts 'Huckabees'

In the decade since Mark Wahlberg made his film debut, he has starred in such diverse films as "Boogie Nights," "The Perfect Storm," and "The Italian Job."

He's now back on the big screen in something completely different - the critically-acclaimed all-star comedy "I Heart Huckabees."

He told The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith that the movie's main character, played by Jason Schwartzman, is an environmentalist trying to figure out whether to do business with the Devil, which is the big Huckabees Corporation.

Schwartzman's character, Albert Markovski, hires existential detectives portrayed by Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin because "he needs to find answers to some very serious questions," Wahlberg explains. "He's had these three different coincidences with this Sudanese refugee (doorman) and he's trying to find out the meaning of it and struggling with a number of things."

Convinced that the coincidences hold some secret to life's largest riddles, the detectives Markovski hires lead him down a path that questions the essence of existence itself.

"It's a very complicated story and a thought-provoking film," Wahlberg says. "But at the end of the day, it's a comedy. It makes you think, it makes you ask questions but hopefully, at the end of the day, it will just entertain you.

Wahlberg revealed to Smith that becoming a father for the first time is making him put serious thought into the roles he'll now accept: "I don't want to be there or have to worry about my daughter at 13 years old and somebody slips in a DVD of "Boogie Nights" and she says, 'What is this all about?' and she is faced with all of those kinds of questions at such a young age. It's something to consider.

"Hopefully, I'll be able to have that conversation with her at the right time but kids could be tough and I don't want to make it any worse on her. It's all connected."

Some Facts About Mark Wahlberg

• Born Mark Robert Michael Wahlberg in Dorchester, Mass., on June 5, 1971, the youngest of nine children
• In 1984, Wahlberg started breakdancing on Boston streets. Around this time, he dropped out of ninth grade
• In 1985, he and brother Donnie became the first two members of the teen vocal group, New Kids on the Block
• In 1986, unwilling to take singing lessons, Wahlberg quit NKOTB
• In 1988, Wahlberg was jailed for 45 days for a drug-addled attack on a Vietnamese man
• In 1991, he and his band, The Funky Bunch, release a debut platinum album "Music for the People"
• In 1992, Wahlberg signed a two-year contract as a Calvin Klein underwear model
• In 1993, Wahlberg made his television-movie acting debut in USA's "The Substitute"
• In 1994, he made his film debut with a featured acting role in "Renaissance Man"
• In 1995, Wahlberg had a breakthrough screen role as Mickey, the hot-tempered best friend of Leonardo DiCaprio's Jim Carroll in "The Basketball Diaries"
• In 1996, the actor starred in the teen thriller "Fear"
• In 1997, Wahlberg had a starring role of an Irish con man in the little-seen independent "Traveller;" he played a 1970s porno star in Paul Thomas Anderson's "Boogie Nights"
• In 1998, Wahlberg starred alongside Antonio Sabato Jr., Lou Diamond Phillips and Bokeem Woodbine in the action comedy "The Big Hit"
• In 1999, he played an idealistic New York police recruit on the Asian gang beat opposite Chow Yun Fat's veteran cop in the crime thriller "The Corruptor;" Teamed with George Clooney and Ice Cube in David O Russell's acclaimed Gulf War chronicle "Three Kings"
• In 2000, Wahlberg reunited with Clooney for a fact-based sea thriller "The Perfect Storm;" Starred in the New York City-set crime drama feature "The Yards"
• In 2001, Wahlberg starred as a salesman who becomes a heavy metal rock star in the comedy "Rock Star;" Starred in remake of "Planet of the Apes"
• In 2001, Wahlberg was cast alongside Clooney in the remake of "Ocean's Eleven," but later he dropped out of the production, because of the shooting schedule of "Planet Of The Apes;" replaced by Matt Damon
• In 2002, he co-starred in "The Truth About Charlie," a remake of "Charade"
• In 2003, he steps into a role first played by Michael Caine in the remake of "The Italian Job"
• In 2004, he plays a fireman drawn pondering deep philosophical questions in a retail superstore in "I Heart Huckabees"