Celebrity News
Mickey Rourke tells of struggle to take on the role and develop the body of an ’80s wrestler
Mickey Rourke hated the character he plays For Darren Aronofsky’s new movie, “The Wrestler,” when he first read the script, but once he decided to take it on, he put his heart and soul into the role. The 52-year-old star had a tough childhood and battled drug addiction for many years, and Randy Robinson reminded him of his hellish past. But Rourke knew that he wanted to play troubled Robinson in the movie to address his real life traumas. He says:
“When I first read the script, I hated the character. I hated his guts, and I hated the side of him that was such a loser, the fact that he couldn’t be accountable, or couldn’t take care of his responsibilities. That’s how I was for many years before I went to therapy. I misbehaved worse than anybody for over 15 years, and you have to pay the price for that. I used to blame other people, until I went to therapy and realised I had to change. I’d become very hard. I came from a very violent background, I was very arrogant and proud, and when I went to therapy I realised that all of those things were just masking the issues I had in childhood, of abandonment and shame.” And despite coming to terms with his situation, Rourke still regularly visits his therapists to avoid a relapse.
He adds, “It’s easier to walk around angry and hard than dealing with those issues that made me feel insignificant and small. I’m still working with this doctor, 14 years later now, to be honest with those issues. Back then, when I was raising all kinds of hell, I didn’t know to fix it. Instead I just got harder and harder. Whereas now, I understand where it all came from.”
Rourke had to put on 33 lbs. of muscle to play the down-and-out former 1980s wrestling superstar.
For the role, Rourke spent seven months training everyday with an ex-Israeli cage fighter, stuffing his face with protein and occasionally making trips to the hospital for MRIs. Not a small price to pay to look like a massive ’80s grappler.
“We did a two-mile run on the beach every morning and went back and went back to sleep. Then we got up a little later and went and lifted weights for an hour an a half and had lunch. A little while later we’d do cardio for about 45 minutes. And then in the evenings we’d go back to the gym and lift weights. Then we’d have about an hour and a half, two hours of wrestling practice. This went on for seven months.”
While training for “The Wrestler,” Rourke had a “pretty severe neck injury,” plus a reoccurring ACL injury and he blew out a disc in his back. His solution? Two hour massages.
“Basically I was getting a two-hour massage every evening, like five days a week. I live in a three-story walk up and the trainer had to help push me up the stairs and hold my arm to get down the stairs and go to work. It hurt to breathe. Darren insisted that I do all my own stunts. It wasn’t like it was a joy to go to work everyday.”
