Your new show, The Kill Point, has a badass title. What’s it about?
Basically, it’s about a bank robbery gone bad, which turns into a hostage standoff. But it’s a very complex story about two sides that both walk the line between good and bad. The criminals are Iraq war veterans so they’re heroic people who are in a bad spot. And the good guys are obviously doing the right thing, but they aren’t always perfect. I play one of the good guys—a hostage negotiator.

What kind of research did you do for the role?
In the case of a character like this, I needed to be the most confident person on the set. So I worked with the head of the NYPD hostage negotiation team—a guy named Jack Cambria who really taught me a lot. Sometimes you read a script and you think it’s all there and then you work with someone like him and you realize the script isn’t always right. The fact that I knew more about hostage negotiating than the writer allowed me to be the most confident person on the set.

You’re known for submerging yourself into your roles. You were almost unrecognizable as Bruce Willis’ killer in The Sixth Sense.
I went to every length I could imagine for that role. I did whatever I could do to suffer and to transform myself into that character. I isolated myself. I starved myself. My character is the one thing I can control. I made a lot of mistakes in my music career, because I worried about things that I couldn’t control. As an actor, I’ve taken a totally different approach.

So do you regret being one of the New Kids on the Block?
No. Why would I?

It seems as though it’s given you backlash as an actor.
Alex Rodriguez is the best baseball player in the world and he gets a lot of backlash. Sure, there was a lot of negativity, but I wouldn’t change my life because some people criticized me in a magazine. I learned a lot during that period. I gained a lot of experience that helps me now. Where would my brother Mark [Wahlberg] be if it were not for that experience? That experience allowed me to become a record producer and give him something to do to get him off the streets.

What was it like being one of the most famous guys in the country when you were only 19 years old?
It’s like there’s a constant storm going on around you and if you’re not careful you’re going to get swept up in that storm and you may never get out of it. If you get your footing there’s a good chance you’re going to be okay. And that’s what I tried to do.

You were known as the bad boy of the New Kids. Are you surprised that you’ve landed so many cop roles?
No. It might surprise me if I got hired to be a cop in real life. I’ve also played a ballroom dancer, a psychopath and a lawyer who was wanted for murder. I’m an actor. I met Robert De Niro and he’s probably one of the squarest guys you’ll ever meet, but damn if he’s not one of the most intimidating people you’ll see onscreen. He wouldn’t intimidate you in a roomful of people though. He’s an actor. It’s what he does. I’m not trying to play my persona in these roles. I’m playing a character.

Do you think you’ve earned respect as an actor?
Throughout my career, I’ve always felt like I was better than what I was given credit for. I certainly knew that it would be a difficult task to get people to think of me as an actor. Again, that’s something I can’t control. I realized at some point that whatever people are going to think is what they’re going to think. You just have to be the best you can be. That’s what I try to do all the time. And it seems that it works out well when I do commit to the work and give it my best. People seem to say, ‘Wow, I didn’t expect that from him. He came a long way.’

The Kill Point debuts Sunday, July 22 at 9 p.m. ET / PT on Spike TV.

Originally appeared at: FHM Online