Mickey Rourke Does Interview with the NY Post about "The Wrestler"

Submitted By Jeff Sheridan on 12/14/08

http://www.nypost.com/seven/12142008/entertainment/movies/mickey_rourkes_flying_leap_of_faith_144117.htm?page=0 MICKEY ROURKE'S FLYING LEAP OF FAITH FUELED BY HIS NO-HOLDS-BARRED PERFORMANCE, 'THE WRESTLER' JUST MIGHT MAKE HIM A STAR AGAIN By REED TUCKER "If you live hard, play hard and burn the candle at both ends, you pay the price. you can lose everything you love, everything that loves you." Posted: 2:02 am December 14, 2008 To play down-and-out grappler Randy "the Ram" Robinson in "The Wrestler," Mickey Rourke had his face slashed with a razor, was carted to the hospital three times for MRIs and didn't add a dime to his bank account. Oddly, all that probably represented an improvement in his circumstances. Had Rourke lost a toe as well, it would have marked his best year in decades. Rourke has been down so damn long, his life should be a blues record. Once a promising young talent, he ultimately self-destructed and became the embodiment of that old Hollywood cliché of ego and excess getting the better of a man. He became a cautionary tale, then a punch line, then he was just plain forgotten. No one talked about Rourke or even thought about him for years, except maybe for a millisecond after channel surfing past a late-night showing of "9 ½ Weeks" and wondering, "What ever happened to that crazy bastard?" People are talking now. His turn as a grizzled professional wrestler dragging through life after his fame has faded is earning Rourke (modestly) talk of a triumphant comeback and (generously) even Oscar buzz. He earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor on Thursday. "It's the hardest movie I ever made. It's the best movie I ever made," says Rourke, puffing on a cigarette inside a downtown hotel. What seems to make the movie and Rourke's performance so affecting is the not-so-subtle subtext. The story of the Ram is essentially that of Rourke. Both were icons in the 1980s who are now, as the wrestler says "old, broken-down pieces of meat." Both ruined nearly every relationship in their lives and found themselves alone. Both hope for one more shot at glory. "The only difference between me and the Ram is that I had access to someone who could help me fix the broken pieces inside of me," Rourke says, alluding to years of therapy. "I didn't have those tools 15 years ago when I self-destructed." Director Darren Aronofsky - the Brooklynite whose previous films include "Pi" and "Requiem for a Dream" - says he knew of the parallels between the Ram and Rourke, but didn't discuss them while filming. "Only recently did Mickey send me a text admitting to how much he connected with this character and how afraid he was of putting himself out there and exposing himself that way," Aronofsky says. "I'm just happy that he was brave enough to face those demons and show the world kind of what his trip was like." And what a trip it was. Rourke says he grew up rough in Miami, abused by his stepfather (his stepfather disputesthis). He made his way to New York and landed a spot at the Actors Studio only to storm out after guru Lee Strasberg criticized one of his scenes. His work in 1981's "Body Heat" proved to be a star-making turn, and Rourke worked steadily throughout the 1980s. He quickly developed a reputation as troubled, however. (See "Mickey's Hall of Shame," above.) Rourke began to make bad choices - he took roles, he admits, mainly for the paycheck - and by the time he appeared alongside Don Johnson in 1991's critically reviled "Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man," the promise he'd shown early in his career had nearly evaporated. "I was pretty good at blaming authority figures when I was coming up," Rourke says. "With me, there were no rules, no consequences, no repercussions. It was just me, in your face and on my motorcycle. I paid the price for misbehaving." And that price was worse than death: straight-to-video. As the Ram laments in "The Wrestler," the '90s "f- - - -in' sucked." "It was painful and a lonely existence. You're a has-been. You're living in a town built on envy," Rourke says. "Some asshole came up to me in a hair salon one time and he had the nerve, this f- - - -ing loser, to say to me, 'You had it all. You fell so far.' He was sticking the knife in." "Ten years passed, and I was doing little pieces in movies, but it still wasn't all that I wanted to do or could feel proud of doing," Rourke says. "The same thing with the Ram. Living in shame or feeling a sense of smallness or insignificance - if you're a proud man, that's a tough pill to swallow." Aronofsky says Rourke had a particularly hard time shooting a scene in which the Ram is forced to work at a deli to make ends meet. "He was having a tough day," the director says. "I talked to him, and he said he felt the Ram's shame. He just couldn't disconnect that it wasn't him. When you called 'cut,' that pain was still there." The most transparent moment in the film comes towards the end, when the Ram delivers a heartfelt speech prior to a match. Rourke himself re-wrote the monologue over two days. "I metaphorically used how I felt," he says, "about being put out to pasture." "He came back and showed it to me," Aronofsky says, "and I said, 'Are you sure you want to say this in front of all your viewers?' He was like, 'Absolutely.' " Here's part of what the Ram has to say: "I don't hear as good as I used to, and I forget stuff, and I ain't as pretty as I used to be, but damn it, I'm still standing here. The only ones who are gonna tell me when I'm through doing my thing is you people here." Rourke sounds contrite now, but his volatile reputation made securing financing for the film difficult. To get it made, the director at one point fired Rourke in favor of the more bankable Nic Cage. "When I did replace Mickey for a little bit, I literally couldn't sleep at night," Aronofsky says. "I was like an insane person. I would walk up to strangers on the street and ask them what they thought of Mickey Rourke. He was haunting me. He was meant to do it." Aronofsky was able to rehire Rourke by scraping up $6 million - far less than he'd originally sought. He couldn't pay Rourke a dime. But the director did get a pretty solid vote of confidence from none other than the Boss himself, Bruce Springsteen. The rocker wrote a song called "The Wrestler" for the film and gave it to Aronofsky for free. "Bruce said, 'I've been hoping for Mickey to get a chance like this, and I just want to help,' " Aronofsky says. Whether "The Wrestler" marks a return to the mainstream for Rourke or proves just a brief stop on the road to obscurity is unclear. As the Ram says, the only people who can tell a performer when he's through doing his thing is us people standing here, the audience. MICKEY'S HALL OF SHAME * During the filming of "9 ½ Weeks," he posted a sign inside his trailer that read, "All studio executives and producers stay the f - - - away." * He walked off the set of 2001's "Luck of the Draw" because the producers wouldn't let his pet Chihuahua appear with him in a scene. * He once anonymously phoned screenwriter Mark Geldman, with whom he was feuding, and threatened in a raspy voice, "If I were you, I'd be looking out over my shoulder," before hanging up. * He fell out with Stuart Rosenberg, who directed him in "The Pope of Greenwich Village." "With Mickey, you never know if he's going to kiss you or spit in your face," Rosenberg once said. * Also fell out with Barbet Schroeder, who directed Rourke in "Barfly." "I put a note on his front door saying that I would never speak to him again," Schroeder said, "and I haven't." * Drove "9 ½ Weeks" co-star Kim Basinger to the brink of insanity by blasting Billy Idol's "Rebel Yell" before each take. * Once showed up at the trial of John Gotti for moral support. He spent wildly on night life, houses and motorcycles. Before he shot 1987's "Angel Heart," he had $300 to his name. FROM DEAD STAR TO SUPERNOVA Mickey Rourke's hardly the first star to descend into the valley of career death before bursting forth in a shower of latent adulation. Here's a few of our favorite flameballs who managed to re-ignite. ROBERT DOWNEY JR. Nine years ago he was in jail. Today's, he's a hot leading man, having starred in 2008's second biggest movie ("Iron Man") and buzz-worthy comedy "Tropic Thunder." TERI HATCHER Very few actresses not named Streep find work after age 40, but Hatcher experienced a career renaissance with 2004's premiere of "Desperate Housewives." JOHN TRAVOLTA How does a man recover from appearing in two talking-baby movies and a sequel that required him to wear a headband and hot pants ("Staying Alive")? "Pulp Fiction." WILLIAM SHATNER Improbably, the 77-year-old is even more goofy-cool today than he ever was, with appearances on commercials and an award-winning role on "Boston Legal." reed.tucker@nypost.com :: DISCUSS THIS POST ON THE FORUMS! :: SEE MICKIE JAMES & THE DIVAS NUDE! :: BUY WRESTLING DVD'S THROUGH OUR STORE! :: GO BACK TO THE HOME PAGE WRESTLING EPICENTER STORE IS OPEN! THE HOTTEST WRESTLING DVD'S ARE NOW AVAILABLE! We've got hundreds of pro wrestling DVD's at your fingertips! 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