By Wonderwall.com Editors
12:17am PST, Dec 19, 2016
Mark Walhberg plays Sgt. Tommy Saunders in "Patriots Day," a film about the aftermath of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings. Mark is from Boston, so the film hit close to home. He recently told Stephen Colbert about why he took this role. "I said you know what, I'm going to tell this story and I'm going to get it right," Mark explained. "I'm going to make sure people know what 'Boston strong' means and make my community proud." In honor of the film's release on Dec. 21, 2016, Wonderwall.com is bringing you more celebs who are from the Boston area. Keep reading!
RELATED: Mark through the years
Ben Affleck was raised in the Boston suburb of Cambridge, Massachusetts. "When I grew up, there really was the sense of 'Why would you want to live anywhere else?'" he told The Orlando Sentinel in 2010. "There's a proudly parochial aspect to Boston."
RELATED: Ben's movies ranked
John Krasinski is from the Boston suburb of Newton, Massachusetts. "Boston is actually the capital of the world," he told The Improper Bostonian in 2005. "You didn't know that? We breed smart-ass, quippy, funny people. Not that I'm one of them. I just sorta sneaked in under the radar."
Like best friend Ben Affleck, Matt Damon was raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In the film that he and Ben co-wrote and starred in, "Good Will Hunting," Matt played an undiscovered math genius from South Boston.
Barbara Walters was born in Boston. As a child, she lived in Brookline, Massachusetts, and attended the Amos A. Lawrence School.
Chris Evans was born in Boston and raised in the town of Sudbury, Massachusetts. He brought up his roots at the 2016 Golden Globes when he presented "Spotlight" as a contender for Best Picture–Drama. "[The Boston Globe's] year-long Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation rocked my hometown of Boston to its core," he said.
Ellen Pompeo was born in Everett, Massachusetts, which is just four miles north of Boston. "You know, Boston people are full of sauce," she told TV Guide in 2010.
Steve Carell was born in Concord, Massachusetts, and raised in Acton, Massachusetts, which are both just outside of Boston. In 2016, he spoke to Conan O'Brien about having "New England guilt." "It's like that New England guilt of 'I'm not going to spend an exorbitant amount of money on myself,'" he said. "I tend to be sort of frugal that way — like I don't buy super-expensive clothes."
Mindy Kaling was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. However, she doesn't have the accent. "I never had [a Boston accent] growing up," she explained on the "Today" show in 2013. "But I love it. I think it's kind of sexy, actually… [But] for a woman in her 30s, I say 'wicked' more than I probably should."
Jay Leno spent his childhood in Andover, Massachusetts, which is about a hour outside of Boston. He also attended Emerson College in Boston and began his career in the city. He performed as a stand-up comic at Boston jazz club Lennie's on the Turnpike, where he introduced jazz musician Miles Davis.
Uzo Aduba was born in Boston and grew up in Medfield, Massachusetts. "I'm from a small town," she told Stephen Colbert in 2016. "Our town has zero, zero crime whatsoever." She graduated from Boston University, where she studied classical voice. Uzo was an opera singer and a track star during her college days.
Ben Foster was born in Boston. He and his family moved to Fairfield, Iowa, when he was 4 years old after their home was robbed. Ben has maintained the ability to do the accent though and even advised Chris Pine on how to imitate it for Chris' role in "The Finest Hours."
Uma Thurman was born in Boston and grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts, before she moved to New York at 17 to become a model. In 2009, she received the Film Excellence Award at the 25th annual Boston Film Festival. It must have been extra special for her to receive the honor in her hometown.
Late-night host Conan O'Brien was born in the Boston suburb of Brookline, Massachusetts. "Brookline is right on the line. I can walk to Boston," Conan told guest Casey Affleck — another Massachusetts native — in 2013. In 2016, Conan gave back to his local community and returned to his alma mater, Harvard University, to speak about the value of a liberal arts education.
Maria Menounos was born in Medford, Massachusetts, and attended Boston's Emerson College. When she gave an interview to the Joslin Diabetes Center's website in 2015, she shared her love for the city. "The best food, sports and people in the world. Boston strong," she said. Maria is known for being a die-hard Patriots and Celtics fan.
John Slattery was born and raised in the suburbs of Boston. He attended St. Sebastian's School for high school in Needham, Massachusetts. John starred as Boston Globe editor Ben Bradlee Jr. in "Spotlight," and the movie hit close to home for him. "There were priests that would just disappear from my high school," he told TheWrap in 2015. "I never heard any specific rumors about anybody in any kind of abusive situation, but there were several priests that just didn't show up for school one day and never came back."
Rachel Dratch was born and raised in Lexington, Massachusetts, a Boston suburb. Her Boston connection helped her land her gig on "Saturday Night Live." Rachel became known for her wicked-cool "Boston Teens" sketch on the show with Jimmy Fallon. She told Salon in 2015 about her "SNL" audition, "I did the Boston thing and I did this thing I had done at Second City, this former child star who's now a grown person but still acts like a child star. That never got on 'SNL.'"
Lisa Edelstein has a very unique connection to Boston. Lisa was born in Boston, and she was switched at birth at Lying-In Hospital (which became Boston Hospital for Women and then Brigham and Women's). She explained to The Boston Globe in 2012 that she was given the wrong wrist band and then to the wrong family altogether. Her parents noticed that their 5-pound baby was suddenly larger. "My mother jokes that I was almost the Queen of England," Lisa told the paper.
Donnie Yen was born in Guangzhou, China, but he moved to Boston with his family at the age of 11. Boston magazine recently asked the "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" actor if he "holds the city close to his heart." Donnie responded, "Somewhat, but I'm sorry to say it's been a little bit. I've been away for so many decades and I live in Hong Kong with my family and kids. I do go back to Boston to visit my parents, but every single time I pay Boston a visit, things change a whole lot from what I remember living in Boston, the diversity of Boston, the choices of restaurants. Especially being a Chinese person, I think when I was living in Boston, they were a lot less. The feeling of just being in Boston nowadays, you have a little bit more sense of comfortableness."
