Entertainment

Every generation in pop culture has that one guy; the guy who, through a combination of luck, talent, smarts, style and, of course, good looks, achieves what sets that moment's standard for every man's perfect life.

Girls have always had their pinup fantasies, those boys-to-men who become their to-die-for dreamboats. But the guy's guy is different; it's more a matter of cool than cute. Sometimes there's a crossover (George Clooney), but most times there's not. Seriously, ask any guy if he'd want to be Patrick Dempsey.

Paramount

Mark Wahlberg in Shooter

Today's leading candidate for that top-of-the-pyramid spot as the guy leading the ultimate guy's life is Mark Wahlberg.

Think about it. At 35, he's fresh off his best-supporting-actor nomination for his performance in The Departed, in which he worked toe-to-toe with most of Hollywood's heavyweights (Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio) and more than held his own, along the way adding Martin Scorsese to the list of elite directors he's worked with. And that's just the latest in what's become a singularly impressive string of commercially successful and artistically defensible projects, from Three Kings to The Perfect Storm to The Italian Job. Fun without devolving into fluff, the long and (not so) short appeal of Mr. Wahlberg's movie career can be summed up in two words: Dirk Diggler, his porn-star hero in Boogie Nights.

This style-and-substance trend is reaffirmed by his latest name-above-the-title project, Shooter, a political thriller about a sniper (Mr. Wahlberg's Bob Lee Swagger) who is enticed out of retirement only to find himself the would-be dupe in an assassination plot. What could easily have been a high-adrenaline but half-witted exercise in blowing stuff up instead proves to be smart and suspenseful – think Three Days of the Condor.

"That's why we made it," says Mr. Wahlberg during a recent phone interview, referring to himself and Shooter director Antoine Fuqua. "We were putting together another project, and I read this script and I said, 'How about we make this one first.'

"It's smart, the script was a great read. It's exciting mentally as well as physically, and that's a rare thing."

If you want a more recent movie to compare it to, try The Bourne Supremacy. Like that spy-thriller franchise and its supercool hero, Shooter's Swagger is a character you can easily imagine rollicking through a series of movies. He's like a younger Bond, a guy who can do pretty much whatever he wants or needs to do whenever he wants or needs to do it, only without all the decades of international branding and mediocre sequels to deal with.

"I'd be happy to do another movie; I really like this character. But the script would have to be good. I've got no interest in doing something that's not going to be as good or better than this one."

But let's forget about his movies – that's just his work life. Let's talk about his private life; that's where his all-star status as Captain Fantasy Figure really takes off.

Wait a minute. We don't really know much about his private life. Which is exactly why he's the perfect guy's guy. Somehow, in our overexposed age of celebrity forensics, when we've seen Britney Spears' privates and know way more than we want to about the lives of Brangelina, when it comes to Mark Wahlberg – pfft, next to nothing.

What we do know is that he's in a long-term relationship with fashion model Rhea Durham, and they have two young children, a 3-year-old daughter and a son who just turned 1. He's never in the tabloids. You don't hear stories about his feuds with the paparazzi and all of his mug shots and legal troubles are years behind him. He seems to have achieved that impossible and utterly enviable position: the under-the-radar superstar.

"My life has changed drastically in the last few years. The most exciting thing in my day is going to the supermarket," he says. "You know, the paparazzi figure that stuff out. If you don't give them anything to take pictures of, they go somewhere else.

"A lot of people get caught up in that partying lifestyle. I was there, I know what's it's like."

You bet he does. The man formerly known as Marky Mark made his mark as a pop star-sex symbol. He had a hit record, but spinning through his first circle of fame he was probably best known as the stupendously buff guy grinning back at the world from all those Calvin Klein underwear ads. Then he came to Hollywood, and the rest is history. Even better, the rest was the inspiration for HBO's hit series Entourage, a show about a young star, Vincent Chase, his posse of pals and the catalog of male wish fulfillment their lives entail. And every week in the credits, there it is: Executive Producer, Mark Wahlberg.

That's the thing about Mark Wahlberg that will get every guy shaking his head in man-oh-man disbelief: He's the real-life Vincent Chase. Except that he will tell you that he isn't.

"You want to know who has it made? Who's got the perfect setup? The cast of Entourage. They don't have to go on location to some jungle or desert for a movie. Their location is Hollywood. Everything you see in the show, that's the life they're living."

Sure. Fine. Whatever. But still, better to be the real thing than the actor pretending to be the real thing.

"I'm telling you, my life is not as cool as guys think it is."

After a moment's awkward, maybe even a little sad, silence, he relents.

"All right, fine. It is as cool as they think it is."