Ethan Embry would enjoy Legendary Status in Hollywood with only one film credit on his resume: The Bass Player from Tom Hanks’ iconic That Thing You Do! And he was only in HALF of that movie before he enlisted in the armed services and left The Wonders in limbo. (He was quickly replaced.) So yeah, Embry was high on our list, and that’s long before we heard this story that he just shared about the time he had a close encounter with Mark Wahlberg in Las Vegas. It’s an all-timer, and it’s on Embry’s Twitter page as we speak:
We have so many questions. For starters, was it even New Year’s Eve? Also, who’s lipstick was on Ethan Embry’s face? Should he really admit to having his face covered in cocaine? And is this story even true?!
Well, Ethan Embry responds to a couple of those, including the final one, in the comments underneath the original Tweet. He proclaims:
Which is outstanding. Let’s remember that Ethan Embry went on to have an incredible career long after That Thing You Do! Yes, he had been in Empire Records the year before, but he parlayed that flash of success into starring gigs in Can’t Hardly Wait, Sweet Home Alabama, and a slew of television roles. You want to know when this Mark Wahlberg story might have happened? In 1997, Embry got to play Rusty Griswold, the son of Chevy Chase’s legendary Clark Griswold, in Vegas Vacation. So maybe he was celebrating the end of a long shoot? Or a particularly gruelling day? Mark Wahlberg probably just needed context on poor Ethan Embry’s day.
Instead of reaching out a helping hand to one Wonder, the band’s lead singer Johnathon Schaech jokingly reached out:
Naturally, inside of the comments underneath the original post, there’s a fair share of people who are criticizing Mark Wahlberg for telling ANYONE to get their shit together when he also has been accused of a handful of controversial encounters. Now, maybe Wahlberg saw a little bit of his own possible reality in the Ethan Embry who is lying on the floor of a Las Vegas casino covered in lipstick and cocaine. And obviously Embry eventually listened, because he’s still a working performer.
What this Tweet basically tells me is that Ethan Embry has now become a Hollywood character actor who needs to write a tell-all biography of his time as a 90s screen star. Just think of the number of wild stories that should come out of the Can’t Hardly Wait set, or Empire Records. Maybe Embry can reach out to Mark Wahlberg and get him to write the foreword.
