Mark Wahlberg and SAG Awards criticized for actor presenting award to Asian cast after committing hate crimes

At the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday night, the film “Everything Everywhere All At Once” took home a record number of awards, but when Mark Wahlberg presented the mainly Asian cast with the award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, many questioned the choice of presenter. Wahlberg, 51, went to jail for committing hate crimes against two Asian men when he was 16 years old.

Wahlberg has said he apologized for the crimes “many times,” according to the Associated Press. Still, many people questioned on social media why he was chosen to deliver the award after committing several hate crimes.

“I gotta say, having Mark Wahlberg, who literally went to jail as a teen for committing a hate crime against a Vietnamese man, present an award to the cast of Everything Everywhere All At Once was certainly a choice,” tweeted Bonnie Stiernberg, managing editor at Inside Hook.

Some found it hypocritical that Will Smith suffered consequences after slapping Chris Rock at last year’s Academy Awards – and was banned from the Oscars – but Wahlberg was invited to present at this awards show. Smith was under disciplinary review from SAG, but the union did not comment further. 

“Will Smith ostracized while Mark Wahlberg get to present an award to an Asian cast,” tweeted Torraine Walker, founder of production company Context Media Group. 

Wahlberg has been nominated in the Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture category at the SAG Awards but has never won. He is not up for any film awards this season. 

“Everything Everywhere All At Once” not only took home this award, but also three others – making history as the most awarded film at the SAG Awards. Michelle Yeoh became first Asian actress to win the SAG Award for female lead and Ke Huy Quan became the first Asian to win best male supporting actor at the SAG Awards. Jamie Lee Curtis also won the best supporting actress award for the film. 

CBS News has reached out to the SAG Awards for comment about Wahlberg presenting.

Some Twitter users defended Wahlberg presenting the award, saying he has “paid the price” and that the crimes happened decades ago. 

In 1988, Wahlberg assaulted a Vietnamese man, named Thanh Lam, while trying to steal beer in Dorchester, Massachusets. He hit Lam with a 5-foot wooden stick and Lam was hospitalized. Wahlberg then went up to another Vietnamese man, Hoa Trinh, asking for help, but punched Trinh in the eye. He also used explicit language and made crude remarks against Asians.

Wahlberg, a teen at the time, was convicted as an adult of two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and marijuana possession. He was also charged with criminal contempt for violating the prior civil rights injunction that he and two friends were issued in 1986 after throwing rocks at a group of mostly black 4th graders on a beach. The civil rights injunction was a warning that if the teens committed another hate crime, they would be sent to jail.

For the 1988 attacks, he served 45 days of a three-month sentence and in 2015, he asked for a pardon for the crimes.

Kristyn Atwood, one of the children involved in the 1986 attack on the beach, told CBS News in 2015 that the actor should not be pardoned for the 1988 attack on Lam and Trinh. “It was a hate crime and that’s exactly what should be on his record forever,” said Atwood, who says she still has a scar from being hit by a rock.

Wahlberg’s pardon application was also opposed by other activists and Judith Beals, a former Massachusetts assistant attorney general, told the AP Wahlberg didn’t acknowledge the racial element of his crimes when filing for the pardon, therefore it should not be accepted.

Wahlberg ended up dropping the pardon request in 2016, according to CBS Boston. He told The Wrap that he apologized in person to a victim of the 1988 crime and didn’t need the pardon. “I spent 28 years righting the wrong. I didn’t need a piece of paper to acknowledge it. I was kind of pushed into doing it, I certainly didn’t need to or want to relive that stuff over again,” Wahlberg told the publication.