Cast, crew, real-life heroes and victims discuss 'Patriots Day'

BOSTON — The terror and emotion of the Boston Marathon bombings will soon be on the big screen for audiences across the nation in "Patriots Day".

"I couldn't have been more relentless on Pete and everyone else, the cast and crew about getting it right.  And how important it is to be accurate and authentic," said star Mark Wahlberg.

Some of Boston's police officers said Wahlberg and Peter Berg, the director, nailed it. The film premiered Wednesday night, with Hollywood stars, real-life heroes and bombing victims walking the red carpet.

At first, Wahlberg said he didn't want to do the movie because it hit so close to home. But then he realized a movie about it would be made eventually, and he wanted to help shape it.

Wahlberg said he knew the reaction to the movie would be "emotional, but hopefully uplifting." Some survivors said that it is hard to watch, and Walhberg said some of the scenes were hard to film.

>> SCROLL DOWN TO WATCH THE FULL NEWS CONFERENCE

"As the explosion happened, you know, you couldn't help but getting emotional every day," he said.

Marathon bombing survivor Jessica Kensky said the hardest part for many survivors while screening the film was seeing the Tsarnaev brothers depicted on the big screen.

Peter Berg, who has produced numerous TV shows and movies and directed the movie Friday Night Lights, met with Walhberg frequently, to make sure every scene was correct.

"We put a lot of thought into this film. It was something we didn't take casually. We knew we needed to be prepared if we wanted to have the result that we wanted to have," said Berg.

Now that the film is finished and the first audiences have seen it, they agreed they wouldn't do anything differently.

"It's a reminder of why we wanted to make it and certainly a huge sigh of relief that I can come home to my neighborhood and show my face," said Wahlberg.

The film is opening locally in Boston next week.  The film's wide release is January 13

Watch the full news conference below or click here to be directed to the original video on our Facebook page:

RELATED:

>> Patriots Day to premiere in Boston Wednesday night

Cox Media Group