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In <\/span>Mark Wahlberg’s<\/a> inspiring new adventure drama <\/span>Arthur the King<\/span><\/em>, the actor stars as an adventure racer who inadvertently befriends a stray dog during a race, which accompanies him and his team for over 400 miles across the Dominican Republic.<\/span><\/p>\n Wahlberg made an appearance at <\/span>a special fan screening at the\u00a0AMC Century City 15<\/a>, which served as a pet adoption event, on Monday, and spoke with ET’s Kevin Frazier about shooting the challenging film — which was made even more grueling by an injury he sustained during shooting.<\/span><\/p>\n Wahlberg explained that, because the film is based on a true story, “You want to pay attention to the small stuff and you want to look the part.” This meant a lot of prep and a lot of training to get ready for the kind of racing that really goes on during these excursions.<\/span><\/p>\n “Unfortunately, I tore my meniscus the first day, so all my training went out the window,” said Wahlberg, referring to the piece of cartilage that serves as a cushion or buffer between the thigh bone and the shin bone. “Then it’s basically just about getting through it.”<\/span><\/p>\n “So I got to understand the suffering a little bit more than I wanted to,” Wahlberg added.<\/span><\/p>\n According to the actor, the injury literally occurred during the very first day of shooting, as they were filming the second scene of the day. He went to a doctor immediately and was warned that not pausing production and healing could lead to serious injury — but Wahlberg felt obligated to work through the pain.<\/span><\/p>\n “I just felt like, you know, it took a long time to get the movie off the ground and we were in the middle of COVID, and if I had shut it down, I don’t know if we would’ve got it up and running again,” he recalled. “So I just kind of toughed it out and I found different ways of getting through.”<\/span><\/p>\n In fact, it wasn’t just the injury that was hard for the action star. As Wahlberg explained, “I did a lot of things that I didn’t want to do. The first was walking out of my trailer in spandex.”<\/span><\/p>\n “I thought I would never put on a superhero suit or spandex, and I put it on and I had to shave my legs. What little hair I had on my legs I had to shave off,” Wahlberg revealed, referring to the Lycra bodysuits the racers wear under their gear. “It still hasn’t come back.”<\/span><\/p>\n In the movie, Wahlberg and his racing team — played by Simu Liu and Nathalie Emmanuel — bike, kayak, run and zipline across 435 miles of rugged terrain. At one point, Bear Grylls makes a cameo as himself, and Wahlberg was asked if he’d ever be interested in going on a survivalist adventure with the famous outdoorsman.<\/span><\/p>\n