Mark Wahlberg passed up the opportunity to star in one of the most iconic movies of all-time due to feeling ‘creeped out’ by its same-sex storyline.

Wahlberg, now 53, and best known for roles in The Departed and The Transformers franchise, could have starred in 2005 Ang Lee epic

Brokeback Mountain – which became one of the most successful LGBTQ+ films in history and netted three Oscars.

However Wahlberg confessed to feeling uncomfortable due to the ‘graphic, descriptive’ nature of the script – which tells the tale of two American cowboys turned gay lovers – with the roles ultimately played by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal.

In a 2007 interview Wahlberg said the film’s first sex scene between the cowboys Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist left him convinced the film ‘wasn’t his deal’,

He said: ‘I met with Ang Lee in that movie, I read 15 pages of the script and got a little creeped out

Wahlberg added: ‘the spitting on the hand, getting ready to do the thing.’

‘Obviously, it was done in taste – look how it was received.’

The National Enquirer reported at the time that Wahlberg’s Catholic priest advised him to pass on the project.

Before Lee – who would win the Best Director Oscar for the film – took on the project, My Own Private Idaho filmmaker Gus Van Sant was approached to direct, and he revealed numerous A-listers had been offered, and passed, on the project.

He told IndieWire in 2018: ‘Nobody wanted to do it. I was working on it, and I felt like we needed a really strong cast, like a famous cast. That wasn’t working out. I asked the usual suspects: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, and Ryan Phillippe. They all said no.