Mark Wahlberg: I’m sorry for saying I could have prevented 9/11 crash (UPDATED)

UPDATE: Mark Wahlberg has since apologized for his remarks. “To suggest I would have done anything differently than the passengers on that plane was irresponsible. I deeply apologize to the families of the victims that my answer came off as insensitive, it was certainly not my intention,” the actor said in a statement.

Metro’s original story is below:

Oh, Mark Wahlberg — how are you so awesome and so dumb at the same time?

In an interview in the February issue of Men’s Journal that will undoubtedly haunt him for the rest of his career, Wahlberg reflected on the tragedy of 9/11, saying things would have gone differently if he — the former ’90s rapper, Calvin Klein underwear model and modern day screen star — had been aboard one of the planes that hit the World Trade Center. (Wahlberg was booked on one of the doomed flights, but never got on board.)

You see, actor Mark Walhberg would have stopped those terrorists dead in their tracks. He would have beat them right up! Then he would have hopped behind the controls, and he would have landed that plane. He just knows it.

“If I was on that plane with my kids, it wouldn’t have went down like it did,” Wahlberg says in the interview. “There would have been a lot of blood in that first-class cabin and then me saying, ‘OK, we’re going to land somewhere safely, don’t worry.’”

Sure, Marky Mark. Sure. 

We can appreciate Wahlberg’s ambition and we get that he wants to be a hero. But we can’t help but feel his comments are disrespectful to the passengers who lost their lives that day, especially those aboard United Flight 93, who famously stormed the cabin and brought down the plane in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Look, Wahlberg — we know you are a real tough guy from a tough guy part of town in Boston, which is, you know, tough and all… but you’re just one guy. You may be a fighter (sorry, couldn’t resist), but you’re just one guy.

Below, a look at the #WahlbergHistory meme: 

[View the story "#WahlbergHistory" on Storify]