Here's where to spot Kate O'Brien in 2010 boxing drama The Fighter. Mark Wahlberg spent years trying to get The Fighter made, which is based on the life of boxer Micky "Irish" Ward. The movie particularly focuses on Ward's troubled relationship with his brother Dicky, his trainer and a former boxer struggling with addiction issues. A number of impressive directors circled the project, with Martin Scorsese quick to turn it down despite working with Wahlberg on The Departed, as he didn't want to make another boxing movie after Raging Bull.
Darren Aronofsky was also attached to The Fighter for a while before David O. Russell stepped in to helm. The biopic received great reviews when it arrived in 2010, with Christian Bale and Melissa Leo both winning Academy Awards for their work as Dicky and his mother Alice respectively. There was talk of Wahlberg returning for The Fighter 2 which would have explored Ward's career beyond the ending of the original, but word on this potential follow-up has been quiet since 2012 so it looks unlikely to happen now.
Micky Ward has eight siblings, with his seven sisters apparently being very unhappy with their cartoonish portrayal in The Fighter. His sister Phyllis 'Beaver' Eklund is played by Kate O'Brien, who reappears throughout the story though she ultimately doesn't play a major role. The best scene to spot Kate O'Brien is a rather tense family meeting around the 36-minute mark between Micky, his family and his girlfriend Charlene (Amy Adams, Arrival). The latter asks Phyllis about her nickname but is curtly told that only family can use it.
Kate O'Brien is the sister of famed chatshow host Conan O'Brien and previously appeared on an episode of Late Night With Conan O'Brien. The actress must have struck some kind of connection with Mark Wahlberg on The Fighter, as she later appeared in a small role in comedy sequel Ted 2. She most recently appeared in Quibi horror series The Expecting alongside AnnaSophia Robb and Rory Culkin.
While Mark Wahlberg didn't ultimately return for a sequel to The Fighter, he did undergo some serious training for Michael Bay thriller Pain & Gain, which saw the actor put on around 40 pounds of muscle to portray a bodybuilder. One of Wahlberg's next big movies will be video game adaptation Uncharted, alongside Tom Holland. He's playing Sully in the movie, which has been in development so long that he was once attached to play Nathan Drake. Ironically, this was supposed to be his follow-up to The Fighter, with David O. Russell also attached to direct before they both departed for different projects.