Mark Wahlberg has revealed his recent acting award nominations has allowed him to be more open about his pop stardom past.

Since he started acting in the mid-1990s, Mark has downplayed his pant-exposing days in Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch but since his Best Supporting Actor Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for The Departed earlier this year, he’s more confident about his history.

He said recently: “Of course I can talk about it now. The reason why I used to mind, why it bothered me, was because I knew it was going to be the thing that I had to overcome to be respected as an actor.”

“But now that I feel I’ve dealt with that I don’t mind the past.”

“It’s all part of who I am and it was fun. There were some embarrassing moments - like taking my clothes off. But I did it and I just hope I don’t have to explain it to my daughter in ten years time! Because that is going to be hard!”