Mark Wahlberg faces backlash after controversial 2023 SAG Award appearance

Mark Wahlberg sparked criticism online after he took to the 2023 Screen Actors Guild awards stage to present an award to the predominantly Asian cast of Everything Everywhere All At Once.

The criticism erupted on social media after netizens recalled the Uncharted actor’s involvement in hate crimes against Asians.

For the unversed, Mark, 51, was convicted for assaults he committed at the age of 16 in 1988 in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood toward a pair of Vietnamese-American men.

As per the reports, Mark was charged with attacking two Vietnamese men while high on the drug PCP, pleading guilty to felony assault.

Police officers reported that Mark used racist slurs to describe both victims.

At the end of the SAG Awards ceremony on Sunday, the Father Stu actor announced the winner of the award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.

Everything Everywhere All at Once won the top nod, Asian actors including starring Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu and Ke Huy Quan.

Netizens condemned The Sag Awards’ the decision to have Mark host the award. “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,” wrote journalist Bonnie Stiernberg.

“The irony of Mark Wahlberg giving an award to EEAAO,” one person commented.