For a long time now, Hollywood stars have lectured the rest of us from their mansions about how we should live our lives.
More often than not, they are giving us instructions on how we should live, not them.
The typical theme of the demands coming from Hollywood is that they almost exclusively feature the virtue-signaling values of the “woke” Left.
The pro-family, pro-faith, pro-America values of conservatives, therefore, are frowned upon by the entertainment industry elite.
But not all actors behave this way, however.
Some are even countercultural enough to leave Los Angeles in search of a semi-normal life without sacrificing their careers.
Here are a few of the best examples of actors who chose marriage, family, and the comforts of home alongside their fame and fortune:
Mark Wahlberg
Actor and film producer Mark Wahlberg doesn’t bear much resemblance to the “Boogie Nights” porn star Dirk Diggler, who he famously portrayed in 1997. Instead, the 51-year-old actor recently joined a growing list of Hollywood celebrities fleeing California for greener pastures.
Wahlberg discussed how he made that decision during an October appearance on the CBS talk show “The Talk.”
He said his family were relocating to Nevada so his children could have “a better life.”
“I moved to California many years ago to pursue acting and I’ve only made a couple of movies in the entire time that I was there,” the Academy Award-winning actor explained.
“So, to be able to give my kids a better life and follow and pursue their dreams, whether it be my daughter as an equestrian, my son as a basketball player, my younger son as a golfer, this made a lot more sense for us.”
That’s not the only way Wahlberg bucks the most common actor cliches.
As an outspoken practicing Catholic, the father of four says he often attends Sunday mass twice a day and that his faith is “the most important part of my life.”
“I don’t try to push it on anybody and I don’t try to hide it,” he told People of being Catholic during a 2022 interview.
Wahlberg even regrets his breakout role in the explicit “Boogie Nights.”
“I just always hope that God is a movie fan and also forgiving, because I’ve made some poor choices in my past,” Wahlberg said in 2017.
“‘Boogie Nights’ is up there at the top of the list.”
James Van Der Beek
There aren’t weekly yacht parties in James Van Der Beek’s world. The “Dawson’s Creek” actor is too busy raising his brood of six kids along with his wife Kimberly on their sprawling Texas ranch.
The 45-year-old actor has no regrets about leaving Hollywood behind in favor of the Lone Star State.
“We love it. We have a lot more space,” the actor said in June 2022 of their new lifestyle.
“We all need a more immediate connection to nature.
“It’s been a really, really great move and the kids are really happy.”
“The parks have been amazing,” he continued.
“We’ve been going to state parks and the national parks.
“It’s just one of the benefits of getting out of the big city was getting to a place where we could just have more space right outside our door. It’s a very different life.”
“We watch the sunset,” Van der Beek said.
“We can actually see stars, which is a new thing.”
The “Varsity Blues” star said living in Texas has “connected” and “centered” his family, who are quick to run outside and start dancing when it’s raining.
Van der Beek’s wife is also a huge proponent of homeschooling.
“I think way too much is put on kids,” she told People of the modern education system.
“I look at school, to be honest with you, as a form of imprisonment, where they spend hours of their day being told what to care about and what to learn.”
“We want strong children that are creative, self-sufficient, can make their own decisions, but we put them like a lineup of kids, moving them from subject to subject, activity to activity,” she explained.
Chris O’Donnell
Actor Chris O’Donnell is another family man who believes his family comes first and career comes second.
The 52-year-old father of five married Caroline Fentress, who is not in the business, in 1997.
He told Redbook that choosing between movie stardom and devoting himself to being a husband and father was a no-brainer.
“I was being offered these huge films that would have taken my career to a different level, and I decided to put on the brakes,” he told the publication in 2010.
“I knew if I continued on that track, I probably wouldn’t have gotten married. …
“I was in the right place earlier than I thought.
“I would think to myself, ‘Could I imagine not marrying her?’
“And there was just no way.”
The “NCIS: Los Angeles” star said he was inspired by his own large, Catholic family and modeled his own priorities after the values he learned as the youngest of seven kids.
He also credits a shared value system with his own marriage’s success.
“Our families have the same values and traditions, and I think that goes a long way because when the excitement and heat of romance wear off, those are the things you fall back on,” he said of his marriage.
Kirk Cameron
There’s nothing typical about “Growing Pains” alum Kirk Cameron or his quest to expose the worst aspects of leftist ideology.
The 52-year-old Golden Globe nominee is an outspoken Christian who believes in traditional values and thinks the public school system offers nothing but poorly disguised indoctrination for kids.
“The problem is that public school systems have become so bad. It’s sad to say they’re doing more for grooming, for sexual chaos and the progressive Left than any real educating about the things that most of us want to teach our kids,” Cameron said in May while promoting his documentary, “The Homeschool Awakening.”
Cameron is also staunchly pro-life, which he demonstrated with the release of his pro-adoption film “Lifemark” in 2022.
The star has been married to fellow “Growing Pains” co-star Chelsea Noble since 1991 and shares six children with her. Four of the kids are adopted, as was Chelsea.
Chris Pratt
It’s true that Chris Pratt is divorced from actress Anna Faris, but he still deserves credit for putting family first despite being a famous actor.
The 43-year-old father of three is now married to Katherine Schwarzenegger and isn’t afraid to talk about his personal life, including how he was once homeless and eventually discovered Christianity following an encounter in a Safeway parking lot, according to previous interviews.
“This guy came by and was like, ‘What are you doing tonight?’ I was like, ‘Oh, I dunno…,’” Pratt said of the experience.
“So he’s like, ‘Will you fornicate tonight?’ I was like, ‘I hope so.’ ‘And drugs and drinking?’
“It’s like, ‘Most likely, yeah. Probably all three of those things. I mean, at least two of them, possibly all three.’
“He was like, ‘I stopped because Jesus told me to stop and talk to you. He said to tell you you’re destined for great things.’
“My friends came out, and I was like, ‘Hey, I’m gonna go with this guy.’
“I gave my soul to Jesus within, like, two days.”
Now Pratt, who provides the voice of Mario in the upcoming “Super Mario Bros.” movie, is a devoted family man who also earns the respect of major players on the Left and the Right.
