Mark Wahlberg confirms why he wasn't in Ocean's Eleven

The original Ocean's 11, released in 1960, starred five of the Rat Pack; Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop.

In 2001, a reboot was released and it proved to be one of the most star-studded movies of the noughties, with George Clooney leading the cast as Danny Ocean alongside Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Matt Damon, Elliott Gould, Andy Garcia, Carl Reiner, Bernie Mac, Don Cheadle and Casey Affleck among others.

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Clooney previously revealed that a number of stars turned down a role in the movie.

"Some very famous people told us to f*** right off: Mark Wahlberg, Johnny Depp. There were others. They regret it now," Clooney said alongside director Steven Soderbergh at the TCM Classic Film Festival.

It turns out Wahlberg had to decline the part of Linus Caldwell due to commitments to Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes remake and Jonathan Demme's The Truth About Charlie.

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Ocean's Eleven (2001)

Criminal Danny Ocean is finally released after four years in prison. He immediately decides to put his newfound freedom to good use by robbing three casinos in Las Vegas. To accomplish this nearly impossible job, he gathers a large crew of professionals around him. It soon becomes apparent that there is more at stake for Danny than just money: his ex-wife Tess is the new girlfriend of Terry Benedict, the owner of the casinos he wants to rob.

Directed by: Steven Soderbergh
Stars: George Clooney, Matt Damon and Brad Pitt

"I was asked to do the movie, and what happened was, we asked if they would wait for me. But I had already committed to working with Tim Burton and Jonathan Demme, and for me, even though those movies did not turn out to be good, those experiences were great," Wahlberg said on the Happy Sad Confused podcast.

"And you know what? At that point, I was still really trying to grow as an actor.

"I had one of the great times of my career, my life, you know, off-set. It was really, really a great experience in many ways.

"So they didn't kind of want to wait but I was able to do my own thing with The Italian Job, which was good."