'I'm trying to age gracefully': Mark Wahlberg passes shirtless torch to Tom Holland in 'Uncharted'

With age comes "Uncharted" wisdom.

Mark Wahlberg first started talking about adapting the immensely popular PlayStation adventure game franchise in 2010 with director David O. Russell and Wahlberg playing adventurer Nathan Drake. The movie didn't pan out.

Wahlberg, 50, was kicked upstairs in the new "Uncharted" (in theaters now) playing the "gruff, elder statesman role" of Victor "Sully" Sullivan. Baby-faced "Spider-Man" star Tom Holland, 25, stepped into the lead role as young Nate, which Wahlberg was apparently cool with.

"I'm trying to age gracefully. I liked transitioning to this other role," says Wahlberg, who enjoyed teaching Holland real-life lessons – like massage guns are not sex toys – along with the duo's nonstop bickering (onscreen and off). "Having this guy constantly nipping at my heels and annoying me makes for good banter. I've never had a little brother before."

Here are some of the life lessons Wahlberg taught Holland in "Uncharted":

Mark Wahlberg: Schools Tom Holland on massage guns: 'For muscle recovery, nothing else'

Humility: He was ab-solutely fine giving up the shirtless shots

As Wahlberg's Instagram page shows, the former Calvin Klein underwear model has impossible abs and a clear disdain for shirts.

Yet in "Uncharted" it's the bulked-up Holland who gets the shirtless shots, showing there's more to see than high schooler Peter Parker. Wahlberg saw the importance.

"I noticed that from the first time we first met until we were actually going to make the movie (Holland) put on weight and spent a lot of time in the gym," says Wahlberg. "He's gotta prove to me and to the world that he can do it at that level for some 30 years."

Wahlberg even offered to train with Holland, but that didn't fly. "I think because he thought it was going be this kind of weird competition. I wasn't trying to compete with him the way he was with me."

There is one impressive Wahlberg "Uncharted" tank-top muscle shot. "He definitely has his guns out," says director Ruben Fleischer. "If we're lucky enough to make a sequel, we'll get that shirtless shot too."

Wahlberg taught Holland proper etiquette when trapped in a car trunk

The two-time Oscar nominee showed movie wisdom shooting a scene where the adventure duo hides in the tiny trunk of a Mercedes Gullwing sportscar. The two were crammed together for hours, Fleischer says, though much of the trunk scene had to be cut for time. ("They're going to make great deleted scenes.")

Wahlberg showed proper comportment when in a trunk compartment. "He would see that I take a mint before each scene, you have respect," says Wahlberg. "I'd use a good, clean body wash and deodorant but no cologne. You don't want to blast him out with cologne. And I wouldn't have any protein shakes right before, since a gas accident, that would be bad."

Holland passed the tight quarters' scent test. But, he was no Will Ferrell.

"I gotta tell you, nobody has ever smelled as good, especially their hair, as Will Ferrell," says Wahlberg of his "Other Guys" co-star. "He puts this Moroccan oil in his hair before scenes that is next level."

He showed Holland he'd never measure up, then out-mustached him

Wahlberg (at 5-foot-8) doesn't exactly tower over Holland (5-foot-7). But he's definitely taller. The two would spar about height, but Wahlberg avoided a direct measure-off.

"That was a point of pride for Mark, that he's least an inch taller than Tom," says Fleischer. "But no one could ever confirm this height differential."

That explains an onscreen joke Holland's Nate makes in "Uncharted" saying, “Hey you’re only like one inch taller than me, max.”

"They loved giving each other a hard time," says Fleischer. "That was one improvised joke that made it into the movie."

Another improvised moment came when Wahlberg's Sully surprises Nate, busting in with a mustache and quipping, "puberty is just around the corner kid. You can grow your own."

Wahlberg's mustache is a key reveal late in "Uncharted," since fans of the video game are used to seeing the character with his trademark facial hair. The 'stache will be available for any future sequel appearances.

"That's the plan," says Wahlberg. "We wanted to show him a little bit younger at first and then becoming this iconic character people know and love."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Uncharted': Mark Wahlberg taught Tom Holland car trunk survival rules