Entertainment

Mark Wahlberg discussed trying to get rid of his Boston accent for 20 years and played a game of “Wheah Ya Frahm?” on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”.

By Kevin Slane

April 14, 2026 | 12:24 PM

2 minutes to read

Mark Wahlberg hasn’t lived in Boston for decades, but the Dorchester native still knows a Bostonian when he sees one.

The actor visited “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on Monday to discuss his upcoming movie “Balls Up,” the years of effort he put into getting rid of his Boston accent, and to play a game of “Wheah Ya Frahm?” with the late-night host.

Kimmel surprised Wahlberg by playing a clip from the MTV’s 1991 “Rock N’ Jock B-Ball Jam,” in which celebrities like Wahlberg and his brother Donnie played with NBA stars like Magic Johnson and Reggie Miller.

After watching a clip of Donnie gassing his brother’s dunking ability up for the audience, Wahlberg told Kimmel that there was “nothing worse than hearing that accent.”

“I spent a good long time trying to get rid of the Boston accent,” Wahlberg said. “Only to then go do movies like ‘The Fighter,’ ‘[The] Perfect Storm,’ ‘The Departed,’ all these movies.”

Wahlberg then recalled a story about him and Kimmel frenemy Matt Damon on the set of “The Departed.”

“He and I were the only ones actually from Boston, but we were kind of looking at each other like, ‘I think people are going to think that we have the fake Boston accents,’ and we’re going to stick out like a sore thumb,” said Wahlberg.

With that, Kimmel and Wahlberg launched into a game of “Wheah Ya Frahm?”, in which Wahlberg had to guess which one of three people on the streets of Los Angeles were originally from the Boston area without hearing them speak.

Wahlberg breezed through the first two rounds, sussing out the Boston-area native by asking if anyone had gotten drunk on a duck boat and asking which color of clam chowder, white or red, they preferred. (The second round was especially easy, given that the man, originally from East Boston, was wearing a Dunkin’ sweatsuit.

The third round was tougher, with two people giving the “correct” answer to Wahlberg’s questions about preferring Larry Bird over Michael Jordan, whether they’ve had a fist fight with a relative, and what hand gesture to give to Yankees fans (the middle finger). But in the end, Wahlberg was able to guess that the woman in the lineup was a Bay Stater.

Watch Mark Wahlberg on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’

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