Mickey Rourke

[Dora]

Rourke’s Drift
Sanjiv Bhattacharya
The Observer (UK)
Sunday November 23, 2003

'That is employee parking only,' the waiter replies in a crisp French accent. 'I always park there, pal, so just move your car so I can get out, all right?' 'Why? Are you leaving right now? Rourke freezes for an instant and then stands up to face the waiter. He's a big guy, 6ft tall, with bulging arms and broad, sloping shoulders - an ex-prizefighter who lifts weights at 5.30 every morning. He's wearing sweat clothes, a beanie hat pulled low and black sunglasses. He takes off the shades and points at the waiter with a sausagey finger. 'Listen,' he says, quietly. 'Don't get smart with me, man. Just move your ****ing car.' 'Of course.' The waiter takes a few steps back. 'When you leave I will move it.' Rourke sits down and exhales, his dark eyes blazing. Years of fist fights and reconstructive surgery have left the star of Rumblefish and Angel Heart a little puffy and pummeled, but he is clearly recognizable. You see? This is the thing I gotta watch. Because he's being rude. He purposely blocked me in. And now I got smoke coming out of my ***. But here's the deal - if we were back in Florida, it'd be all over, just for that. That's where I come from. I'm not proud of it and I can kinda control myself. But I gotta stay on top of it.' He takes a drag of his cigarette. 'It's like my therapist tells me: "You don't live in the Dark Ages, Mickey. You don't have to go around with a suit of armor any more." Right?' He smiles fondly at his pet chihuahua, Loki. 'We got each other, right?' The big man pets the little dog, his constant companion for three years. 'We're all that we got, Loki, so we gotta stick together.' He scoops some cappuccino froth with his finger and Loki licks it off. 'That's my girl.'

Rourke was always a hothead. His bad-boy reputation was built not on cocaine and hookers but on smashed glasses, broken noses and upturned tables; on spousal-abuse charges which were dropped by his ex-wife Carré Otis in 1994; on being, as he puts it, 'a hard man'. There are other reasons why his career collapsed so spectacularly in the 90s, reasons he has discussed with his therapist, Steve. Arrogance is one, and immaturity, and at the root of it all, a harsh and scarring childhood. But the hardest part to live down is the hair-trigger reputation. Directors and studio executives who don't know better are still afraid to hire him. Jane Campion (The Piano), for example, requested Rourke for her recent thriller In the Cut, but Nicole Kidman, the executive producer, vetoed it. The hard man shrugs. 'I can't blame her.' This is only part of Rourke's reputation, of course. He is also a former screen idol whose epic arc through Hollywood these past two decades includes one dizzying rise, one thudding fall and now his crawl back into the limelight. In the 80s, he soared like Icarus on a Harley-Davidson with a body of work that had critics hailing the new Brando, the new Dean. In Diner, Rumblefish, Barfly, The Pope of Greenwich Village, Angel Heart, Year of the Dragon and 9 1/2 Weeks, Rourke established himself as Hollywood's existential hero, a dark and bestubbled Marlboro-smoking mumbler. Though none of his films hit it big in the US, Europe loved him, particularly France, where Rourke was embraced with a passion that only Jerry Lewis had known before him. 9 1/2 Weeks played for two years in Paris.

Yet just as he had it all - the smolder, the talent, the model wife, mansion and gleaming gold Rolls-Royce - he threw it all away. 'I had everything going and I ****ed it all up,' he smiles. 'Disaster. Total disaster.' His work degenerated into flaccid soft-core (Wild Orchid). He barged through Hollywood with his middle finger aloft, snapping at the hands that fed him. Throughout this riot of self-destruction, all that sustained him was youthful arrogance and a nodding entourage of thugs, thieves and bikers who provided the matches once Rourke had doused his bridges in gasoline. Blinded by hubris, he picked straight-to-video turkeys while passing up Platoon, Rain Man, The Untouchables, 48 Hours and Highlander, every one a box-office smash. Eventually, at what might yet have been his peak, aged 34, he turned his back on Hollywood and became a prizefighter for five years. He regrets it now. By the time he hung up his gloves, he had nothing left but injuries and a few motorcycles. 'I lost the house, the wife, the credibility, the entourage. I lost my soul. I was alone,' he says dramatically. The phone didn't ring any more. He had barely $200 a week to live on. And for the first time in more than a decade, he had to get his own groceries at the supermarket. 'I'm sort of OK with it now, but the first time I'm in there, pushing a ****ing cart, getting my supper... I used to go to the 24-hour place in gay town, so no one would recognize me. 'The only thing I could afford was a shrink, so that's where my money went. Three times a week for the first two years. The year after that, twice a week and now I'm down to once a week. I've only missed two appointments in six years.'

He lives in a one-room bungalow in the Hollywood Hills, alone with his five dogs - Loki, a couple of other chihuahuas and two mini-eskimos. His stormy marriage to Carré Otis ended in 1996 - it was his infidelity that sealed it - and though he refuses to mention her by name he has said in previous interviews that Otis was the great love of his life. Either way, there is no girlfriend on the horizon. 'I went through a period with women,' he says, 'where I didn't want to spend time with them in the morning, and I wanted to shoot myself for being with them in the evening. So I don't even do that any more. It's like monkville, my place.' Where once he tore down Sunset Boulevard on his bike at 80mph in the driving rain, Rourke now stays in cooking chicken breasts for his brood and reading novels. And, sure enough, the phone has begun to ring. At 48 - though articles indicate he's probably turning 50 - Mickey Rourke is making a comeback, part by quirky part. In 2000, Sylvester Stallone hired him for Get Carter, and, the following year, Sean Penn gave him a small role opposite Jack Nicholson in The Pledge. Steve Buscemi cast him in The Animal Factory as Edward Furlong's transvestite cellmate Jan the Actress, the most memorable character in the film. And, this year alone, he stars in Once Upon A Time in Mexico alongside Johnny Depp, and Spun, in which he plays the Cook, a crystal-meth manufacturer in a cowboy hat. Rourke's history makes him compelling to watch, particularly in such a hip, young movie as Spun, alongside Mena Suvari, Brittany Murphy and John Leguizamo. The sunbaked and leathery Rourke appears as though after voyages untold, his eyes darting oddly from side to side. 'I like these young guys,' he grins. 'They're not as afraid of me as the last lot.'
At first, however, he wasn't keen. 'I didn't care for the material and I wasn't real interested in the cast. But two years ago I put myself in the hands of an agent, David Unger at ICM, and he said: "Do the movie." So I did.' He based the Cook on a speed-freak assistant he had back when he had assistants. 'And a bunch of girls I knew along the way. Strippers do that stuff, too - it's real big with them.'

But Rourke couldn't tell you what happens in Spun. I mention the lead character, who cuffs a girl to a bed for four days, and he looks puzzled. 'Really? Which guy was that?' He has just finished shooting Man on Fire, directed by Tony Scott, but he doesn't know what that's about, either - 'I just read my part.' He's not punch drunk, nor uncommitted. There's a reason for his odd distance from the films he works on, and it stems, by some twist of Rourkean logic, from The Pope of Greenwich Village, 19 years ago. 'I loved that movie, but they didn't do any P and R for it,' he says, with a sigh. 'There was a regime change at the studio and they let the picture fall in the toilet.' You could say Rourke did the same with his career. Even at his peak, during Angel Heart and 91/2 Weeks, he didn't know his agent's name. He would call CAA and ask the receptionist, 'Who's the little bald guy with the white Porsche?' When Dustin Hoffman called to offer him the Tom Cruise part in Rain Man, Mickey forgot to call him back. He was too busy at the time, swaggering about with villains and bruisers, jetting over to Miami - where he grew up - to kick it with his roughneck Cuban friends. 'Some of them were, you know, villains - most of them were - but they were my boys, you know?' And among them were celebrity villains - the late rapper Tupac ('great guy') and Sonny Barger, the chief of the Hell's Angels ('very intelligent man') and even, at one point, the Mafiosi boss John Gotti ('no comment'). Rourke showed up at Gotti's murder trial in 1992. With such bad company, surely these were high times? 'You know how I parallel it?' Rourke stands up and rubs his hands together. 'I was on the field, lining up to play, I picked out all my own players. And when the whistle blew...' Holding an imaginary ball, he looks around him, confused. 'Everyone had on the wrong outfits and ran in the wrong direction. Now if they give me the ball, I line up with the right players. The last team, forget about it. Halloween III. Elvis on acid. You should have come to my big ****ing mansion with the gang that couldn't shoot straight. Neighbors moving out each side and at the back.' He's beaming now, at the memory of his reckless years. 'I had six motorcycles. Joey's [his brother] got at least six and he had two flags flying over the guest quarters - the Confederate flag and the Jolly Roger. We just didn't belong. Richard Harris used to have that house before me and he said: "Mickey, they're going to kill you, these guys." I'd say, "Hey, what does Richard know?" But he knew. He knew.'

To see the smile on his face, Rourke would still be chilling with the villains, if only the price weren't so high. 'I know - I should have been talking about acting with Chris Walken instead of sitting with the soldiers, but I'm comfortable with that element,' he says. 'We have our own laws. We don't go to lawyers to straighten out ****, we do it right there on the spot!' The mansion years - all two of them - were for Rourke the high point of his delayed childhood, all invincible swagger and irresponsibility. 'I didn't have a childhood, really, because I worked my whole life and... other reasons. So when I had some success, I went ballistic. That was my childhood, and the party kept going on. I didn't get off my motorcycle for 10 years.'

His actual childhood he won't talk about, but all the arrows point to a brutal time when the hard man was first toughened up. He was born Philip Andre Rourke in New York, to a father of the same name who he scarcely knew. As a toddler, he and his brother Joey were moved to Liberty City, on the outskirts of the Miami hood, where they were raised by a stepfather they couldn't stand. It was a hard, blue-collar upbringing, near a rough black ghetto. Black and blue were always his most familiar colors. 'That's why I drive a Cadillac now. Everyone who makes it in Liberty City gets a Caddy.'He hints at violence at home. When I ask about his five stepbrothers, he shakes his head. 'I only have one brother. The rest don't count for ****.' And, later on: 'I went through some **** growing up that stayed in me and that makes you hard. It's like a dog that's been kicked in the *** every day. You can't come near it.'

same source

 

[Dora]

continued:

Perhaps it was the ***-kicking that drove young Mickey to the boxing gym in the first place. He was good and could have turned pro had he chosen, with an amateur record of 139 wins and three losses. Instead, he fled to New York to study at Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio. 'I loved acting most, because it was all about the work then. Not the business or the politics. You were either a good actor or you sucked.' Rourke was good and a purist with it. So when success came, and he span out of control, his excuse was that he was rebelling against Hollywood's unrepentant mediocrity, the very 'bull**** and politics' every student loves to loathe. I thought: I'd have to be dead not to work if they settle for what they settle for,' he says. 'That was very arrogant on my part.'

But the fall has changed him only so much - off the record, he still sees mediocrity everywhere. He scoffs at certain peers, notably those who remained in the A-list from his own generation. 'I see so-and-so actor and I say, "That's a ****ing movie star! That loser can't shine my shoes!" I think deep down the reason they're so disciplined and focused on their careers is because they know they don't have the goods.' The 'goods', the talent, the mercurial spark - this is what Rourke holds dear, what he believes still distances him from workaday drones. He never much liked actors anyway. Only last week he changed gyms to escape them 'always whining about how they didn't get this job or that job'. His most famous quote on the subject was that acting was 'not a man's job'. 'Yeah, I know I shouldn't have said it,' he admits. 'I remember Mel Gibson had something to say about that, but he should have said it to my face.' (Gibson had claimed: 'Well, Mickey just thinks he is a tough guy in a black T-shirt.')

If machismo reflects an inner vulnerability, if the thickness of the amour mirrors the tenderness beneath, then Mickey Rourke has a wounded and weeping core. No one surrounded himself with such relentless machismo as Mickey - with the villains, the motorbikes, the Cuban boys and the strippers, Rourke's testosterone-drenched life only stepped up a notch when he announced his return to boxing in his mid-thirties. He took a good deal of stick for 'doing a Hemingway', for pretending that a soft-bellied actor could amount to anything as a fighter. But Rourke was a boxer first, and under no illusions. 'I felt I ran away from turning pro as a kid; there was a cowardice there I had to deal with. Become a decent club fighter - no more. Yeah, I admit I thought I could come back to acting easily enough,' he laughs. He won nine and drew two over five years - which isn't bad, considering everywhere he went the crowds bayed for his blood. 'But unbeaten doesn't mean anything,' he adds. 'I was beaten up every day in the gym.'

Is it self-loathing that makes the pretty boy subject his face to a world-class thumping? Rourke won't say. But he took a heavy beating. For 18 months he sparred with James Toney (who beat Evander Holyfield in October). 'He beat the **** out of me. He broke my cheekbone, with a head guard on. I had five nose operations, broke my hand a few times, two or three concussions. But I became very disciplined as a pro. I use that focus now as an actor. When I started, my trainer Freddie Roach said: "I'm going back to Vegas - you're not training as a pro. Train on your own for a month, and when I come back, if I like what I see, I'll train you." I had tears running down my face when he said that, because I thought I was training hard. Freddie knew what I was getting into. He did it for my best interests.' For all the havoc boxing caused his health and personal life, his acting career suffered equally. It was while he was fighting that Quentin Tarantino sent him the Pulp Fiction script, highlighting the boxer role that eventually went to Bruce Willis. Tarantino wanted to resurrect a Rourke as well as Travolta in that movie. But Mickey didn't read it. 'I had a fight in Kansas at the time and I was really nervous,' he says, shaking his head. 'I know, I know. I was stupid.'



A devout Catholic, Rourke believes that God is testing him with this mighty rise and fall. His sin? 'Not forgiving and moving on from my childhood.' He believes that when his world collapsed, God gave him his dogs to give him a sense of responsibility that he never had before. 'I'm closer with my dogs than most people,' he says. 'When Bo Jacks died - that's Loki's father - I was beside myself. I had to call Father Peter in New York and he said: "Anything you love that much, you will see again." I had to hear it from him, you know?' Today he will spend at home with his animals. Maybe later he'll surf down at Venice Beach - 'I'm the worst surfer in California,' he grins. 'My balance is off from boxing.' Maybe there will be a decent movie on cable. He could always go back to the gym.

He puts a $100 bill on the table, leaving an enormous tip, and gets ready to go. 'I said to my doctor: "Steve. All these blokes I know, if they had to live the way I live now, they'd kill themselves." And you know what he said? "None of them would have a clue how to fall as far as you've fallen." And he's right. It's where I came from. 'But I want to say I have changed. I don't want to be a hard man any more. It has killed me. I just have to think two steps ahead. Like asking that guy to move his car - I can't let that short-circuit me. It's not my right. All I can do is ask him, give him that opportunity.'

That sounds like your therapist talking.

'I know. I hear my therapist coming out of my mouth a lot lately. He's going on holiday soon, what am I going to do?' He laughs. 'Me, of all people.'

same source

 

[Dora]

Mickey Rourke Finds His Long-Lost Peace
By Roberto Santiago
August 2nd, '04 from The Miami Hearld

Mickey Rourke's soul is in Miami. It's home. It's where his family is. It's where he is able to make sense out of life.

And, most importantly, the city is his artistic muse, an emotional oasis allowing the moody, misunderstood method actor to embrace skills neglected after filming 1987's Barfly.

"l really do love Miami,'' said Rourke cradling Loki, an 11-year-old miniature whippet and Chihuahua mix, his constant companion over the last years. "Miami -- you can relax here."

After years of therapy, Rourke said he is close to banishing most of the negative forces that crippled his life and career.

Gone are the hoodlum friends, dysfunctional relationships and bad boy antics that made him a pariah in Hollywood.

And gone are the bad films that went straight to video.

"I have fallen in love with acting again. I care about the craft," Rourke whispered in the same feathery tone immortalized in his modern-day film noir cult classics, Angel Heart and 9 ? Weeks.

Patient fans who long suffered through the horrible films Rourke made in the 1990s (with the exception of The Rainmaker) should be pleased to learn that Rourke, in the last four years, has been rebuilding his career through a careful selection of memorable and critically-acclaimed character roles.

"The new generation of young directors don't care about my old reputation," muttered Rourke, chain-smoking in the lounge of the South Beach hotel he now calls home. "They remember how serious I was about acting and expect nothing less from me now. And I am not about to disappoint them."

Although he is still being cast in thug roles, Rourke can play street in a thousand innovative ways.

Steve Buscemi cast Rourke as Jan the Actress in the prison drama, Animal Factory, where Rourke stole the show as a neurotic, transvestite inmate with a lisp.

In Jonas Akerlund's Spun, Rourke plays The Cook, a wild man who runs a crystal meth lab out of a motel room.

In Tony Scott's Man On Fire Rourke portrays Jordan Calfus, a corrupt attorney who represents the family of a kidnapping victim.

And next year, audiences will see Rourke in what he hopes will be his defining, breakthrough role.

He has the lead in Robert Rodriguez's Sin City, playing Marv, a moody, disfigured, persecuted, misunderstood thug who loses the love of his life.

Marv seeks vengeance but finds redemption.

It is based on the best-selling graphic novel by Frank Miller.

"When a great artist decides to pick up the paint brush again -- sometimes you see their greatest work," said Robert Rodriguez, who recently completed the film. "Mickey is nothing short of amazing. He plays Marv on so many complex levels. Even Frank Miller said Mickey is Marv."

Rodriguez is convinced that Marv will help bring Rourke back to the top. Rourke says this is the only role in his 25-year career that he is proud of.

As a method actor, Rourke, whose once-boyish features underwent reconstructive surgery following a 1990s boxing career, relates to Marv's disfigurement, angst and street code.

Back in 1961, a child named Philip Andre Rourke Jr. -- nicknamed Mickey by his father -- grew up in a housing project on 84th Terrace near Liberty City.

His mother, Ann, had recently relocated from Schenectady, N.Y., with Mickey, his little brother Joey, and his sister Patty, after divorcing.

In 1967 the family moved to Miami Beach, where Rourke hung around the now-defunct Fifth Street Gym. He had a few amateur fights, but hung up the gloves after suffering two concussions. He attended Miami Beach Senior High School where he played baseball.

After graduating high school Rourke knocked around Miami Beach, later working in the very Collins Avenue hotel where he now lives.

Rourke hung around with a group of street punks and would have likely wound up dead or in jail had acting not come into his life.

He performed in a University of Miami production of Jean Genet's Deathwatch and moved to New York City in the 1970s, where he eventually studied at The Actor's Studio under Lee Strasberg.

After years of struggle, he got his big break when cast as arsonist Teddy Lewis in 1981's Body Heat.

Then the moment he hit Hollywood's A-list, he lost the passion for acting, turning down blockbuster roles, alienating key directors and producers.

When asked if he was wrought with self-loathing for having made it big while most of his homeboys from Miami floundered, Rourke looked stunned.

"It's a good question,'' said Rourke, who says he was physically abused by his step-father as a child. "But I know for decades I made a string of self-destructive choices that only recently I have been able to understand."

In 1990 while making Wild Orchid he met the love of his life, co-star Carre Otis, who divorced him several years later. It was a wrenching heartbreak for Rourke, eventually leading him into life and career-saving therapy.

By 1994, Rourke attempted a comeback, but still didn't take his art seriously. He had one amazing performance in 1997 when Francis Ford Coppola cast him as sleazy attorney J. Lyman "Bruiser" Stone in The Rainmaker, but Hollywood didn't care.

He wrote films such as The Last Ride and Bullet under the pseudonym Sir Eddie Cook, but they went straight to video. Then came a slew of films where he showed up for a paycheck.

He eventually bottomed out, finding himself alone and broke, living in a tiny bungalow above Sunset Strip with several Chihuahuas that he dressed in jumper suits.

But with the new millennium and extensive therapy, Rourke changed. And Hollywood's new generation of directors noticed.

Besides Rodriguez, Scott and Akerlund, Rourke says he has met with Guy Richie and Quentin Tarantino and hopes to work with them at some point.

But first and foremost, Rourke is happy that he has reclaimed his soul.

When he is not on a film set, he is in South Florida, caring for his biker brother, Joey, a Hollywood resident, who has been fighting cancer for many years.

"Joey has been very sick, has gotten into a number of accidents . . . I love him more than anyone in the world,'' said Rourke, fighting back tears. "More than anything else, that is why I am here."

Whether Rourke will become a leading man again rests in the success of Sin City.

"It would be nice to make a successful comeback, to get larger, better roles," Rourke said, "but even if I don't, I think I am making peace with myself, with acting and with those I love. I'm finding peace."

same source

 

[Dora]

Coyote Ugly
FILMINK
By David Michael
Dec. 05'

Like the coyotes, rattlesnakes and mountain lions that prowl the turf around his Hollywood Hills home, Mickey Rourke has always been too wild and dangerous to tame. But after a life of violence, scandal and crushing disappointment, this once-great actor's career is back on track with Tony Scott's blazing new action drama Domino. Be warned though: he still bites...

High up in the Hollywood Hills, under the smog-coated skies about Los Angeles, there's a series of signs that make more of an impression on a tourist than even the infamous Hollywood sign. Scattered around the hills are bright yellow signs warning of dangerous wild life, including the likes of mountain lions and rattlesnakes.

FILMINK had been up in the hills a week previous to meeting Hollywood Hills resident Mickey Rourke, who himself knows a thing or two about living the wild life. his was an existence but took him from the highs of being perhaps the best actor of his generation in the 1980's to ultimately landing in the proverbial gutter. Mixing with Hells Angels, cons and hard-living part-set over the past two decades saw Rourke's reputation ---garnered from performances of pathos and grit in the likes of Angel Heart ( 1987 ), Rumble Fish ( 1983 ) and The Pope Of Greenwich Village ( 1984 )--slowly fade to black. As his disillusionment with Hollywood grew, Rourke burnt every bridge in town, while his personal life suffered a major meltdown from the inferno of his excesses. Ever since there has been talk of the MIckey Rourke Acting Comeback, and this year, with his performance as the brooding and tortured knucklehead Marv in Sin City, we finally got it.

Meeting Rourke in his London's Drochester Hotel, FILMINK begins proceedings with "I-was-in-your-neck-of-the-woods-and-I-saw-these-signs-in-the-hills" small talk. An enthusiastic Rourke happily explains the warnings are in fact for real, and soon spills fourth on the current coyote problem that has gripped his neighbourhood. Seemingly at odds with his set-in-stone hardman persona, Rourke is a keen dog lover. Driving seven further against the grain is the fact that his decidedly un-macho favourite breed is the Chihuahua, a very tidy snack for a coyote. " You've got to be very responsible with dogs, " says a concerned Rourke. " The majority of people where I live have lost their animals. I don't want to lose any, because it's a vicious way for them to go."

With coyotes becoming an increasing suburb problem in Hollywood (a recent report details monthly attacks on residents and their pets ), dusk means it's curfew time: the gates of the rich and famous close, and their pets are quickly ushered indoors. " Everybody's in, because they come out around dusk," Rourke says of the coyotes menace with a click of his fingers. "When your driving home late at night, you'll see four or five of them right in the middle of the road, and they don't ****ing move - They're really vicious ****ers too. My house boy, who lives with me, told me he was driving home one night, and there was five of them tearing apart a German Shepard, which is a big dog. I'm glad I didn't see that."

Loki, Rourke's favourite chihuahua and constant traveling companion, is present today as FILMINK meets Rourke to discuss his new film Domino. In Tony Scott's " Sort of " biography of tragic model-turned bounty hunter Domino Harvey, Rourke plays Domino's father figure, tough talking bounty hunter Ed Mosby. The film is driven by a strange story indeed, one that even rivals Rourke's own twisted personal journey. Domino Harvey was the daughter of British actor Lawrence Harvey ( most famous for his chilling role in John Frankenheimer's The Manchurian Candidate ), who turned her back on a lucrative modeling career to tote a gun as a bounty hunter. Just before Tony Scott's film ( with a script courtesy of Donnie Darko author Richard Kelly ) was due to hit cinemas, 35 year-old Domino Harvey was found mysteriously dead in the bathtub of her Hollywood home. The coroner later ruled that Harvey had died from an accidental overdose of powerful painkiller.

Scampering in alongside her master, Loki gives FILMINK a quick sniff up and down, while handshake greetings are attended to. As Rourke talks about his redemption, Loki curls up and begins to snore, as if she's heard it all before. Rourke, 49, despite his diminutive dog, still cuts a mean figure. With sausage-like fingers, he takes off his shades and rests them on his head, revealing renowned battle-hardened face.

When Rourke was branded a dangerous animal by an industry that quarantined him with a bunch of useless B-movies, he returned to his first love, boxing. He blames his return to the sport as the reason for his reconstructive facial surgery. In the flesh, the damage is not as apparent as photos suggest. Noticeably though, there's little mouth movement when he talks. Buy his famously taciturn bruiser's words flow surprisingly freely, and twice he actually waves away a hovering PR assistant to extend out chat....

Robert Rodriguez says that you can hear Loki snoring during your narration in Sin City because she was sleeping on your lap when you recorded it...." ( Laughs ) These things happen! Loki travels with me everywhere. That was a tough one, because Loki had to fly to Paris on a different plane, and was then driven from Paris to London, because of the quarantine laws. As much as she needs me, I need her. She's like the closest thing to me you know? "

How did she get on with Domino Harvey's pit bull, Ziggy? " Yeah, that was funny. Domino had a shaved head and a black motorcycle jacket on, and this great big pit bull with her. I thought ' this is an interesting looking bird ' I was nervous about the pit bull. I was juggling Loki in my hands, and Domino was staring at me. Then she greeted me by leaning into me with her shoulder. So I said " **** you", and she replied " **** you." and we got along, you know? We recognized out similarities without discussion."

I heard you hung out a bit? " Yeah, we went for some drinks and hung out. We kind of knew each other."

Whereas you found salvation, did you ever get the impression that she didn't have emotional infrastructure to save herself? " I didn't know, not in the short time I knew her. Where I released it, and it sort of really cut through me, was at her funeral. 3 days before, I just had my appendix out and I was in the hospital. I could hardly ****ing stand. But I thought " No, I'm gonna go to the funeral ". She had alot of buddies there, and they made me understand the connection and the part of her hid from the world-the composing of the music, her singing, and the things that she liked to do. They were things I really knew nothing about. From listening to her friends interpretation of her, it hit me alot. It's no wonder we connected the way we did. And I was very sad to hear all this, because she was gone."

Obviously Domino sold her story, but at her funeral, did you get any feeling that people were skeptical about Hollywood telling her story? " Domino had a very special relationship with Tony Scott; he was like a father figure she could trust. It wasn't as if she was doing a movie with some flash, commercial, Hollywood guy who does big formulaic bull**** movies; it's not like she was talking with Spielberg. There was a diverse group of people at the funeral. The friends that she grew up with were really devastated, so she made quite an impact. From what I gathered, she was a hell-raiser from early on, and you pay the price for that."

Sin City has in many ways rubber-stamped your comeback, but I've read that you've resigned yourself to playing the game and it hurts a little to compromise... " Here's the deal. I didn't understand the game for 15 years and I also had no rules with anything in my life. There was no discipline at all. I surrounded myself with a bunch of assholes from where I came from. It was very easy for me when I was raging and confused to point the finger at all the people in the system: the producers and all the ****s I didn't like, and say it was their fault. But really when everything ****ed up and I lost everything, it wasn't their fault that my wife left me. It wasn't their fault that my house was gone. It wasn't their fault that my money was gone, and that I lost my credibility, respectability and trust. I had to look in the mirror, and I looked in the mirror and said ' **** '."

When did your disillusionment with the film business come? " I was finished with this business right after The Pope Of Greenwich Village, and that was really early on."

But your films around this period were respected as cult films and championed by true fans... " Sure. It was never a problem with the acting - it was always me. It was being out of control."

Was that an ego thing? The films didn't do well box office-wise in the states... " No, it wasn't ego..."

I mean doing Harley Davidson And The Marlboro Man must take an ego to do? " It does, but that was because I'd waited 2-3 years for a movie that I wanted to fall on my plate and it didn't. So I did Harley Davidson because it paid me a lot of money, so I could pay off some big ****ing house I bought. That was a lesson too. Sure, I got upset about certain movies - The Pope Of Greenwich Village, Angel Heart or Year Of The Dragon - because there was all that other Hollywood crap that was making money that had nothing to do with acting and that short circuited me. I always respected the pure par of acting, the part that I originally grew to enjoy from The Actors Studio, and I wanted it to be about that, but it wasn't.

The funny thing is, in Europe - especially France - you became loved as this brooding, handsome, existential figure.... " Maybe I cultivated it to a certain degree, but maybe it was something that was in me innately, but it got out of control. It got to the place where even those people were looking at me, thinking, ' He's really ****ed up '. When the French start thinking ' God, you've got problems ', then your really in trouble! But it was also the French that 1st gave me any recognition in a way that I was proud of, for Rumble Fish, when it was not accepted in America.

Your an older guy now acting with young actors coming up, which is similar in a sense to when you returned to boxing ( in 1991, aged 35 ). You were fighting guys 10 years younger than you. " Yeah, that was no walk in the park."

Larry Holmes and George Foreman made comebacks at 40. Is it for the love of boxing or just for the payday? " It's the love of boxing, believe it or not. I thought I was going to come back and fight one more year and it turned into 5-and a half years ( Rourkes return to the ring panned out to 8 wins, 2 draws and no defeats ) because I fell in love with it again, and I couldn't turn it off. They had to finally say to me, ' Your going to lose your ****ing mind! Your memory's going! Mickey, were going to have to find someone to take you around the ****ing corner to show you where your house is!"

You sparred for 18 months with world middle weight champion James Toney; that's like a death wish isn't it? " He beat the piss out of me for a year - and-a-half, and I really had a problem with him kicking my *** but he did...every ****ing day."

Do you still have a passion for boxing? It's not what it used to be with boxers like Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler and Thomas " Hitman " Hearns... " I still love it. I once did an exhibition with Tommy Hearns in Los Angeles and he hit me so ****ing hard on the chin, at about 2 in the afternoon, that I was throwing up at midnight."

That's a " Hitman " experience! "Exactly! But, I mean it was just something I loved, which I started at 11-years-old in the amateurs until I was 18."

On the way back to acting, you've had a few could-have-been films. like for example, Terrance Malick's The Thin Red Line. Why were you cut out of that? " The studio didn't want me. They said you could hire anybody in this town you want, except Mickey Rourke."

A few people got cut from the film ( Adrien Brody and George Clooney's roles were radically trimmed too )... " Yeah, but I gave probably one of my nest performances ever that nobody will ever see."

The other people who got cut out would probably say the same thing... " Yeah well, they say it, but it might not be true. In my case, it was true. You can take that to the bank."

So do you have more of an emotional support now? You go to a psychologist, don't you? " Sure. That's helped me terribly. I was afraid to go in the beginning: I didn't thing there was anything wrong with me."

Sometimes people don't have any one to talk to.... " Yeah, I was lucky because I'd lost everything and fallen on my ***. My wife walking out the door - that was the last straw. I ****ed up and she said " You better go and see someone - your crazy." I didn't think I was crazy."

Crazy people never think they're crazy... " Yeah, but I was. I had things broken inside me that I didn't know how to repair. And that's been a work in progress. I take full responsibility for all the mistakes I made and the hell I've raised. A lot of it I feel ashamed about now."

How has this related to your acting? " I don't feel that I deserve to be here. I feel grateful for the second chance. Right now, I can't afford to slip and **** up once, because I'm not going to go back to where I was eleven or twelve years ago. I've put my armor down and re-invented myself, and I've realized there are rules. I have to be strong in a different way. I'm okay with that. It's not like I felt I gave in, because there's still a fight on."

same source

 

[Dora]

continues

Did you feel at any point that it was really over? " I will tell you, seven or eight years went by, and I still wasn't working again, and then I thought about all those people who said ' He's finished, he's broke, he's a has-been' were right. I started to think it was true. because I thought I'd start working in six months, but after several years passed, I thought, '****, yeah it's over'. To live in that kind of shame, to realize that you've ****ed up so bad, you're yesterdays news...that was like hell. But then Robert Rodriguez ( Once Upon A Time In Mexico ) and Tony Scott (Man On Fire) gave me an opportunity, and I'm going to make the most of it."

Vincent Gallo's Buffalo '66 was an early step in the right direction... " Yeah, at the time, I couldn't get a ****ing job. I couldn't pay my rent. Then Vinnie Gallo calls up. I knew who he was sort of, and he says, 'Hey, want to come and do my movie?' I said, ' Sure, but I've got some tax issues; can you pay me in cash?' And he said, 'yeah, how about I give you $100,000 dollars in a paper bag?"

Having spoken to him, that's the way he likes to be paid too! " ( Laughing ) Yeah! I said, '****, Vinnie! When do you want me?' And he said ' We'll, let me sell you the scene first!' ( Laughing ) It was like four or five pages of dialogue, which I learned and I flew to Buffalo, and I did the scene and was there four hours. Then he said 'I've got the paper bag. Do you want to see it?' I said, 'yeah....Goodbye!' So that was a kick in the ***. I knew they weren't going to give me Mel Gibson roles. I knew it was going to be a little process of roles that I could kick *** and tear up. It was a slow process, because my reputation was still out there, and I was still mental too."

Hasn't Elmore Leonard's Killshot been set up as a Mickey Rourke vehicle? " I don't know if that's going to happen; they've got some roadwork to do with that. Then again Harvey Weinstein and Bob Weinstein have been great to me. They said to Rodriguez, 'If you want him, you can hired.' I'm in Stormbreaker, which is the first movie they're doing with their own company, and we're going to do Sin City 2. I owe those guys, and once I considered them the enemy. I now consider people who are helping me get a career again."

Is it a case of crossing the bridge halfway? " Absolutely. It's an opportunity to have a second chance. I'm not going back to living in that ****ing hole and not working, with just me and Loki and the rest of the guys. A lot of time that's all it was."

You've got seven dogs. Do you breed the?, Loki's dad was Bo Jack... " The Great! Her mother's still alive and her brother Monkey. She's also got a ******** brother called Crack Baby. He's not really ******** but we pick on him, because he never lived up to being Bo jack. So, I'll tell him ' You're not Bo Jack's son!' He's nervous. Bo Jack was like a stud. Bo Jack never shook in his ****ing life!"

Is he like the Mickey Rourke? "Who?"

Crack Baby? " **** no! ( Laughing ) There ain't no shaking going on here! maybe just some fear now and then on a rainy night..."

And he's right. Mickey Rourke doesn't seem to be shaking his second chance. As FILMINK bids adieu, the grizzled actor can be heard from the hotel corridor, shouting from his room to his PR: " Now get me a Broad! hey, send in the ta-ma-toe!" Rourke may have rubbed a lot of people the wrong way to get his name on Hollywood's walk of fame, but the man's got enough wildness left in his spirit to earn a place alongside the coyotes, rattlesnakes and mountain lions celebrated on the sight that warn Hollywood of it's still active wildlife.

same source

 

[Dora]

Q & A : Mickey Rourke
Esquire Magazine
Mike Sager
Sept. 1st, 05'

The '80s belonged to Mickey Rourke: Body Heat, Diner, Rumble Fish, The Pope of Greenwich Village, 9 1/2 Weeks, Angel Heart, Barfly. The soft voice, the black eyes, the air of gentle menace. The critics agreed: Rourke could act his *** off. But then he self-destructed. He left Hollywood, returned to Miami, fell in with a bad crowd. He took up boxing, presided over the systematic deconstruction of his face. Now, after five nose operations and a shattered cheekbone, Rourke has returned to acting with four memorable character roles in the last two years. Next up: a turn as a lawyer in Man on Fire, starring Denzel Washington, directed by Tony Scott.

ESQ: You were gone for a while, but now you're back.

MR: I left for about five years, but I didn't leave, like, sort of the right way.

ESQ: Why did you decide to leave acting?

MR: I don't know. I just got fed up with, uh, with, uh...I don't know what [an embarrassed laugh]. It's a bit foggy to me, too. I just didn't really--I wasn't really--I didn't have my head screwed on right, really. I can't put it in a sentence why I left.

ESQ: What was the highlight of your boxing career?

MR: I fought a kid named Darrell "Big Chief" Miller in the Tokyo Dome. I had the flu, but I stopped the guy in the first round. He threw a wild left hook, and I hit him on the chin with a right hand, and down he went. I was so sick, I couldn't have gone two rounds.

ESQ: Do you regret leaving Hollywood?

MR: Of course I do. 'Cause, you know, when I decided to come back to work, the door wasn't just closed. It was more or less like I had slammed the door on all my fingers and toes. This is a cliquey little ****in' business, and you gotta keep your mouth shut. I didn't play the game.

ESQ: So now you're trying to make amends?

MR: Let's put it this way: I'm trying not to trip over the same rock twice.

same source

 

[Dora]

Mickey
By Julian Schnabel
November '05, issue of Interview Magazine

FEW ACTORS HAVE BEEN KNOCKED OFF THEIR FEET MORE TIMES THAN HE HAS -- BY HOLLYWOOD, BY HIS OPPONENTS IN THE BOXING RING, AND BY HIS OWN STUBBORN PRIDE. BUT AFTER WALKING THROUGH HELL -- AND WITH THE SCARS TO PROVE IT -- HE'S A MAN WHO'S LEARNED SOMETHING. NOW WITH A PUNCH OF NEW MOVIES, MICKEY ROURKE IS BACK.

My interest in Mickey Rourke started with I first saw him in Body Heat, before he had any lines, and he was mouthing the words to Bob Seger's song "I Feel Like A Number." Just seeing that moment you knew you were witnessing an actor you were never going to forget. There is a brooding and tormented quality about him, a particularly American quality that has been well described by Tennessee Williams.

Mickey wasn't always humble. In fact, he could be a real jerk. People who grew up in private can skate over their adolescence and car crashes. But when you grow up in the public, in the world of Hollywood, where people become a product, there's very little latitude for conflagration. All of the violence and battles that have surrounded Mickey's private and public life have humbled him. Now he can show his gentle and sweet side, and his eyes are wide open; he doesn't miss a thing.

In the beginning he wasn't ready for the fame. I think that at first, he felt like he didn't deserve the recognition or admiration he was getting. He didn't feel like he'd accomplished anything; he just knew he was better at his work than most people. But that wasn't good enough for him.

Sadly, when Marlon Brando died his things were auctioned off at Christie's. I bought his boxing gloves and offered them to Mickey Rourke for his comeback. I thought that was apt, but he told me I should hold on to them.



DATE: SEPTEMBER 7, 2005

[Karen Wilson, an editorial assistant at Interview, dials Mickey Rourke's number: phone rings Mickey Rourke picks up.]

Mickey Rourke: Hello?
Karen Wilson: Hi, may I speak to Mr. Rourke, please?
MR: Hello. What's your name?
KW: Karen, I'm the editorial assistant at Interview. I'm calling to connect you with Julian Schnabel.
MR: Oh, okay.
KW: I have Julian on the other line. Do you have any other questions to ask before I connect you?
MR: Nope, none. Just make sure he's wearing clothes when he's talking to me.
KW: I didn't ask him if he was.
MR: Well, we'll find that out in a second, won't we? [Wilson laughs]
KW: Hey, Julian? I have Mickey on the line.
MR: Yeah. I told her I would do the interview with you as long as you were wearing clothes.
JULIAN SCHNABEL: I'm not wearing clothes.
MR: Well, you better have some underpants on.
JS: I don't have any.
MR: Then I'll take mine off while we talk.
JS: All right. As long as you don't touch yourself. [laughs]
MR: I won't. I won't. I'm sitting here with my dog Loki in a garden in London. And we miss you, and we wish you were here. There are some people who are big fans of yours right here, sitting across from me.
JS: Who's there with you who are fans of mine?
MR: Harvey Weinstein. David Bailey. Me and my dog.
JS: So, I want to actually talk about some stuff that might mean something. Maybe you've answered these questions a million times. I don't know. But how did you end up being an actor?
MR: Well, I was training for about six years to be a fighter. I was an amateur fighter, and I got a concussion, and I was told that I couldn't really fight for a while because of the severity of it. So, for several months I wasn't doing much of anything. And I was sitting on the beach one day and some high school friend of mine was at the University of Miami was directing a play -- a Jean Genet play, Deathwatch -- and he started talking to me about it. He said he didn't really care for the actor at the university who was doing the play, and he thought I would be really good to play the part of Green Eyes. He kind of talked me into it, and when I was doing the play, I thought, wow, this is better than getting up at six o'clock in the morning and running 4 miles a day. I kind of like it. And I asked him, "Well, where do you go to learn how to do this stuff?" And he told me, New York City.
JS: How old were you?
MR: I was 18. So I said, "Will you go with me to New York?" And he said yes.
JS: Did he go with you?
MR: No, he didn't. So I borrowed $400 from my sister, and I went by myself.
JS: What was the friend's name who directed you in the play?
MR: Gary Cox. He's a waiter in Culver City now. He went to New York several years after I went.
JS: Your English teacher was the person who got you into movies, right?
MR: Yeah, Mrs. Glazer. She showed me the first movie that I ever saw, A Place in the Sun [1951].
But at the time, being 18, I wasn't fascinated at all by Elizabeth Taylor. I was fascinated by Montgomery Clift, and if I had been in the boat with him, I would have drowned Shelley Winters, too [both laugh]. Anyhow, she showed it twice in class. I was in B-level class for underachievers.
At that time in Miami, all the Cuban had come over, so I was in a class with a whole bunch of stupid white boys and Cuban guys who didn't understand English, and they used to give us really easy subjects to do. They'd show us movies. It was the best class, yeah. But she was a very sensitive teacher, very understanding too, for those of us that were underachievers.
JS: How did you get into the Actors Studio?
MR: It was back in the day when they used to take only three or four people out of thousands. I was studying at the time with an acting teacher named Sandra Seacat, and I was working on a scene from a Tennessee Williams' play. It was a scene between a father and son, and I wasn't doing it very well because I couldn't relate to a father figure because I never had one. So my acting teacher said, "If you want to pass this exam, you need to go an find your father." And I had only met him once, when I was a boy. So a day or two before my test, I called up some family members that I didn?t know on my father's side, and I went to upstate New York, and I introduced myself to my father because my teacher told me that it would help with my being able to relate to a father.
JS: I guess it did, no?
MR: Yeah, it certainly did -- especially because Elia Kazan [who co-founded the Actors Studio] said it was the best scene he'd seen in 30 years.
JS: Did you see Al Pacino when you were at the Actors Studio?
MR: You know, I use to see Pacino there and Chris Walken and Harvey Keitel. I was a kid. It felt like, finally, for the first time in my life -- outside of a baseball field -- I was home.
JS: Who were some of the people that meant a lot to you or influenced you or were important to you as young actor?
MR: As a young actor it was most definitely Brando and Pacino. And then, shortly afterwards, when Mean Streets [1973] and Taxi Driver [1976] came out it was Robert De Niro. And then it was Chris Walken and Harvey Keitel. Those were the guys who made me go, "Wow. I hope I can be those guys in four or five years if I study really hard." Because I didn?t want to be mediocre, I used to get excited. I remember as kid, when I wanted to be a ball player, and I saw Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle. Those were the guys I could relate to. Then when that didn't work out for me, it was Pacino and De Niro and Walken. I didn't want to be like the guys at Juiliard; I wanted to be like the guys at the Actors Studio.
JS: So then things started to happen. Your first film was Body Heat [1981], right?
MR: I got a two-day scene in Body Heat.
JS: And in Body Heat, you basically get up and mouth the words to that Bob Seger song, and for the rest of the movie you just disappeared. But it was just like, who is this guy?
MR: Well, it was interesting because when I did Body Heat I had gone to Los Angeles, and I had a job as a bouncer at a transvestite night club. And I remember going to work on the set of Body Heat and then going back to work on the set of Body Heat and then going back to work at the transvestite night club. I was a strange sort of day. But it was the beginning. Then I got Diner [1982], and then, shortly after that 91/2 Weeks [1986].
JS: Well, you did Rumble Fish [1983] before all that happened.
MR: Yeah, Rumble Fish. I can't remember back then; it's been a while.
JS: I thought your performance was so great in the movie that I made a painting for you and called it, "A Painting for Mickey Rourke for his performance in Rumble Fish."
MR: I remember a couple of dozen years ago when we met at the Mayflower Hotel. You had done this painting, and for years I thought it was another painting. I was very young and naive because the "Motorcycle Boy" was about motors, and I was trying to find the motorcycle painting. I remember I was trying very hard to find the Harley Davidson inside your painting, and I couldn't find it. [laughs]
JS: I remember when I saw you at the Mayflower, we didn't know each other well, but I saw all these really rough-looking guys with you. You had kind of a bumpy ride there for a while.
MR: Well, at that point, I only really felt comfortable around boys from where I grew up, so I surrounded myself with a pretty bad element of people. That's all I knew. And eventually I just took myself down. I think I was real good for a lot of years at blaming everybody else for my problems. But as the years pass by, you have to finally looking in the mirror and go, "You know, it wasn't everybody else. It was me."
JS: How low did you get?
MR: Let me put it this way: remember all those actors I said I liked? I told my psychiatrist one time, "Hey, if those ****ing guys had to live the way I've lived for the last 10 years, they'd blow their ****ing brains out." And you know what he said to me? He said, "Mickey, those guys wouldn't know how to fall that far. Only you would know how to fall that far." As I said, anything that happened I did to myself. But I was real good at putting the blame on the system.
JS: Well, a certain kind of vulnerability or inner pain can be a wonderful tool when you tap it as an actor. But it can also tear you up.
MR: It can.
JS: You sort of ended up living this life where you were kind of a tough-guy gangster, but that image was not real.
MR: Let me put it in a nutshell for you, okay? I think when you talk about what was tat the core of it all, it was really more shame than it was anger. It somehow seems more honorable for somebody like me to be angry than to live in shame, but there was a lot of shame.
JS: Who would you say are the people that you're the closest to and that you feel most comfortable with?
MR: Right now? Because I ****ed up a good part of my life, I'm really not close to anybody. I'm closest to my dogs. The people that I was closest to were the ones I hurt the most, and I only have myself to blame for being numb. When I look at you, for example, I go "Wow, I'd rather have kids like you got than make a great movie or make 10 great movies." But that's not in the cards for me.
JS: Who was the person you connected most with in your life?
MR: My brother Joe.
JS: And he died, what, six or seven months ago?
MR: Six months ago, yeah. There is no lying in my life now because of that. When I saw Joe go, I decided that life's too short to lie about anything. When you're sitting there, and you're holding the person that you've been with for 45-odd years, and that person leaves, you just sit there and go, "What the **** is going on? Where are you? Talk to me!" That changes you greatly. Joe left me a tremendous strength, because he said something to me when the life was going our of him. He actually looked at me and said, "Hey, bro, you changed. I never thought you would. I thought you were always going to be crazy, but you changed." And it meant a lot for him to see me change. So, I'm not going to fall again, because I worked very hard to understand that it's not only important for me to keep moving forward but also that Joe wouldn't want me to fail.
JS: That's right. Well listen, I have to go, but we should continue this.
MR: Let's talk some more. One more thing that I do want to say is that there was a time several years ago when I would have even been able to talk to you because of where my head was at. But right now, my relationship with somebody like you is important to me and it means a lot to me. I used to be only with idiots and bad men.
JS: Well, listen. I'm going to call you. Let's pick this up again very soon.
MR: Sounds good.
JS: Okay, bye.

same source

 

[Dora]

DATE: SEPTEMBER 14, 2005

JS: Well, it took a while for us to get back on the phone, but here we are.
MR: I've been working in the middle of nowhere.
JS: So, I wanted to talk to you about the stuff you've been doing lately because, from the beginning, when I first saw you, I thought that there was this sense of longing or human beauty that you were able to capture that was what Tennessee Williams was about. Then, of course, you had to step into juke-dancing obscurity, and the God knows what happened and what the details are. But coming through that and actually surviving it, it seems like there were other people who really saw the same thing I did, like Francis Ford Coppola, who put you in the movie with Matt Damon [The Rainmaker, 1997], and Sean Penn, who made sure you were in The Pledge [2001].
MR: And Michael Cimino.
JR: Yes, and he had his own demons. It's just been very nice to see the kind of support for you that has come from people who are really involved in film making.
MR: Well, you know, maybe I wouldn't care about that, or it wouldn't have mattered to me. But I'm appreciative of it right now, where maybe I wasn't for over a decade.
JS: Well, unfortunately what happens is that when you're very good at doing something, you get very critical of what other people do, and sometimes you say things that are negative when maybe you shouldn't.
MR: Well, it's not the perfect business to be totally truthful, is it?
JS: But, at the same time, being truthful is the thing that people respond to in your work. There was an amazing response to your role as Marv in Sin City, wasn't there.
MR: Well, I think it's interesting that you brought that up because even with all the makeup and the Band-Aids and the fact that it's a caricature of a particular kind of man -- and I mentioned this to, Robert Rodriguez, who directed the movie -- Marv still had to have layers. He had to have a soul. Because so much was hidden with all the bull**** with the makeup and the bandages and the effects, it was important for me to make the character me.
JS: Who are you?
MR: Well, it's a guy who has got a sense of humor and who has feelings, and that was important. And that was a fight. It wasn't a hard fight because Rodriguez is a pretty intelligent cat. We're going to do the sequel to Sin City in February, so I'm very excited about that. You know, these younger directors don't have any fear about working with me, Rodriguez is a younger guy. He doesn't care about my old reputation, All he cares about is my acting ability, and that's all it should be about. But I've also realized that I've got to be professional. I can't surround myself with a bunch of ****ing idiots like I used to. So it's time for me to work again. People say to me, "What's the best movie you ever made?" And I say, " I haven't made it yet."
JS: You've chosen to play characters like Marv a number of times over the years-- like Butch in Rumble Fish and Johnny Walker in Homeboy [1988]. I feel like you could play anything, but you got very focused on one kind of character for a while.
MR: Well, I'll be honest. Those are the only kinds of characters that really interest me. The rest of them I find boring.
JS: What is the role that you really would like to do that would be close to your heart right now?
MR: I haven't done it yet. It's out there, I?m sure, calling to me. I just haven't answered the call. It's out of my hands, you know?
JS: So tell me about Domino. What's it all about?
MR: Domino is inspired by the life of Domino Harvey, this fashion model from London who came over to the States and ended up for a period of time as a bounty hunter. She was the daughter of Laurence Harvey, the actor. The story, I think, fell across Tony Scott's desk, and he became very interested in the idea and decided to make a movie inspired by it.
JS: Tony Scott's been very supportive of your work for a long time also, hasn't he?
MR: Yeah. You know, there were years when Tony and I wanted to work together, but my career was in the toilet, so, thanks to me, we couldn't. But since we've been putting Band-Aids on things, we were able to get together recently, and Tony's been very supportive. There are a few directors I've worked with that I can say are actor's directors in the way Tony Scott is. I mean, any actor worth his ****ing salt looked a that interrogation scene with Walken and Dennis Hopper in True Romance [1993] and went, "Man, look what those two boys are doing." So, Tony's dynamite. Domino unfortunately, died in a bathtub three months ago at 34 years old. I went to the funeral, and Tony was speaking about it because he finished the movie, and she never saw it. I had an incredible experience working with Keira Knightley, who plays Domino in the movie. She put a lot of trust in Tony's direction, and I think for a girl who's so beautiful to look at, she dug deep and stepped up to the plate and gave a dynamite performance playing a part that, in her day-to-day life, might have been a bit of a stretch for her. So that was a very cool experience.
JS: So, you're having a good time living in London right now?
MR: Yes, I'm looking for a house over here, as a matter of fact.
JS: You look for houses wherever you go, don't you?
MR: Yeah, I do. But I think I've finally found a place where I can have one.
JS: You'll find a home near me somewhere.
MR: Well, there's a difference between a house and a home. I'm looking for a house at the moment. I remember when I left Miami and moved to New York, it seemed like such a big scary place -- but then that's what was really exciting about it too. I've never really been the kind of guy to get on a plane and travel to different countries like Spain or England or France. But now I think it's time for me to get on a plane again and move. It kind of feels like working before was dangerous for me because I?d feel like I deserved it. But right now, getting this second chance, I'm working from a better place, I'm just thankful now instead of angry and arrogant, beating on my chest.
JS: Are you doing any writing these days?
MR: Well, I have, but not at the moment.
JS: I'm about to get on an airplane to go to San Sebastian, and I'm taking that script you wrote, Wild Horses, to read on the way.
MR: Well, you should. That only took me 17 years to finish.
JS: Anyhow, I think the sun rises and sets on you, Mickey.
MR: Oh, yeah. Okay, brother.
JS: I'll call you when I'm over in Europe.
MR: You got it, my man.

same source

 

[Dora]

Mickey Rourke- A Survivor's Story
By: Stephen Applebaum
Cannes Film Festival 05'

"The boxing, I guess, was just another form of punishment in a way. But it was something I did before I acted. I was only going to have one fight. I didn’t know it was going to go on for five-and-a-half years, like 13 fights. And then all of a sudden that was my life, and the acting was gone. Then when I retired from boxing, I thought, ‘Oh, I’m going to go back to acting now.’ But then when I went, ‘Hey, I’m back to acting now,’ everyone went, ‘**** you, you’re finished.’”

“Sorry I’m late. I went out.”

Still partying hard after all these years?
“I’m not dead yet.”

You have said that you felt very close to Marv, in Sin City, and Rodriguez has said that you were as near as they could get to the character without hurting themselves. Why did you identify with him so much?
“I read that on the internet. I’m going to ask him what he meant by that.”

How close did you feel to him and why?
“Well I think the pieces of me that were – are? – damaged, messed up, you know, you could feel very much that way inside. So I guess I would try to hide it most of my life. When I was combing my hair in the morning, I’d be going, ‘You’re such a prick.’ I had some weird **** happen when I was little, stuff I couldn’t fix right away, and it caused everything to go haywire. That was very weird, because when you’re little and you can’t defend yourself, you feel like a sense of shame, so you build up an armour. Sometimes the armour that I built up got too much and what I thought was a strength became really a weakness. Then I ****ed everything up because of that. I didn’t have the knowledge to know what to do about it.”

And you became self destructive as a result?
“Well yeah. But it was something I thought was armour. Something I needed for protection. But it got way out of hand.”

How did you eventually deal with it?
“I went to go see a doctor and talked to him for 10 years -- a lot.”

Was this self-destructiveness why you stopped acting at one point?
“Sure. The boxing, I guess, was just another form of punishment in a way. But it was something I did before I acted. I was only going to have one fight. I didn’t know it was going to go on for five-and-a-half years, like 13 fights. And then all of a sudden that was my life, and the acting was gone. Then when I retired from boxing, I thought, ‘Oh, I’m going to go back to acting now.’ Then when I went, ‘Hey, I’m back to acting now,’ they went ‘**** you, you’re finished.’”

You’re definitely coming back now.
“Yeah, but I planned on coming back seven or eight years ago. But they wouldn’t have me.”

Some reporters said that you were good at the boxing but you were taking too many punches, and they wondered if you did that because you thought you deserved it.
“You know, when I fought in the gym, I never would wear the headgear. No. It was like just another crazy thing. But then I stopped exactly when I should have stopped. The doctors said I couldn’t have no more fights and kept saying, ‘Please, one more.’ But every fighter you ever met wants one more fight, you know?”

Because of what happened to you as a child, when you became famous, was there a part of you that felt like you didn’t deserve it?
“Of course, yeah. Sure. And I think out of the shame evolves anger, because you don’t want to feel shameful all the time. That’s not cool. It’s better to be angry.”

Have you any regrets today?
“I’ve got millions of regrets, yeah. I wish I had the knowledge and the sophistication and the intelligence to fix what was broken many years ago, but I didn’t. So that’s where it all fell apart. But I had no way till everything was gone and my wife [Carre Otis] said to me, before she left, too [smiles], ‘You need help.’ I said ‘What do I do?’ and she told me about this doctor.”

You needed to get to the point where you’d lost everything?
“Well you know, I said to the doctor one time, we’re sitting in his office – by the way, for a couple of years I had no money to pay him, because he’s like $400 an hour, but he’s really good. So I said, ‘Was I crazy?’ I said this about a year and a half ago [around 2003], and he went like this [nods silently]. I didn’t think he was going to do that. I thought he was going to go, ‘No, no’ but he did that, and I said ‘OK.’ And then he said, ‘But not anymore.’ For two years, I ended up owing him $30,000, and he said he never did that with a patient before but I was working real hard, going three days a week to see him, for about four years, then two days a week and now once a week. But in the beginning, because of where I come from, the men don’t go to ****ing therapy, you know? It’s like something for ****. I had shame about going to the therapist. In the beginning I would go, then miss maybe three or four appointments. He said, ‘Look, you can’t come when it’s the explosion, you got to come before the explosions all the time.’ I’ve only missed maybe seven appointments in nine years, which is pretty good. I was living like in a little ****ing room, with no car, one jacket, three pairs of pants, brokered to ****, and one day I said to him, ‘Hey,’ and I mentioned four or five actors that I admire or whatever, that I know, ‘those guys would ****ing kill themselves if they had to live the way I’m living, like a ****ing animal now, because I fell really far. What about them?’ He said to me, ‘Only you could fall this far. They wouldn’t have any idea how to fall that far,’ and I went ‘OK.’ I understand now what he meant in the big picture. He’s saved my life in a big way.”

Have you reached a point now where you can live a normal life?
“Yeah but I have to be consistent. It’s like when my wife left me. I said, ‘Please don’t leave me’ [makes a pleading noise] and she said ‘You’re not consistent. You’ll kill me.’ I went back about two days later and I looked up the word consistent. I had no idea what it meant. I don’t like it. Consistent? There’s no fun. It was not me, consistent.”

Have you and your ex wife made peace?
“Oh yeah, we talk every day.”

When did you know that you had to take responsibility?
“I used to have a very big house, with an entourage from hell, cars and motorcycles, money, and *****. You know, the whole nine yards. Then one day it was gone and I’m in a little room. I was all like **** it, and I would just lift weights all the time. Then one day I walked by the mirror and I saw Marv. Old Marv, you know? And I went, ‘****, no wonder people feel the way they do about me. I got to try and start getting back or changing something,’ because it was very dark, no light at all, just black. But I don’t mean for like five minutes, I’m talking five, six, seven years. Then all of a sudden there was a little daylight and the window started to open a little. But it didn’t ****ing happen in six months. I thought it was going to happen in six months. Maybe in six years it started to happen and I could get out of the ****ing window.”

Did anyone in the business help you?
“Yeah but they wouldn’t hire me.”

Now are you going from one film to another?
”Oh that’s all I want to do. I enjoy acting again. When I went back to boxing, after Angel Heart, I ****ing hated acting, hated actors, all of it.”

Because of what?
“Because of when I studied really hard in New York as a student, with Strasberg at the Studio, it was all about the perfection, doing the work the right way. It was very specific. You were either good or you sucked. There was no grey. Then I saw [makes a dismissive noise] what they call ****ing movie stars now, or actors, and that made me rage. There was too much grey. And I thought, ‘What is this?’ You know when you have to fill out a form and they say your name, your business, your passport number, your occupation – oh, I could never write that word [actor].”

Did they want to turn you into a regular movie star?
“Yeah, at one point. And then they didn’t want to turn me into anything.”

Was 91/2 Weeks the problem?
“Yeah but that was like the sex symbol thing. What the **** is a sex symbol? I don’t know who invented that but it’s nothing I wanted to be associated with. Now that I’m older it’s fine. Marv’s a sex symbol!”

Did the suffering you went through help?
”Yeah but it wasn’t like some cool thing I planned to do, to suffer. It just happened. I’d prefer not to suffer and be a more mediocre actor. Really, I’m serious. **** the suffering. That ain’t cool at all.”

Do you sometimes wish you’d been successful as an athlete or as a boxer rather than as an actor?
“Probably. . . probably. . . yeah. To be honest with you yeah, because the boxing thing is in my heart. It’s something I truly love. Where the acting thing, I love it but I’ve always liked sports better. When I played other sports, football or baseball, I was at home. Many years before the acting, I was always playing the sports, nothing else. I loved that. I love the men that play that, you know? When I go out here [Cannes] at night or wherever and I meet ex fighters or rugby players, that’s who I feel at home with. ‘Hi, I’m an actor from England. . .’ Yeah? **** you! Let me talk to the rugby player.”

It’s said that one of the reasons why Richard Burton drank is because he didn’t think acting was a manly enough pursuit. Is that how you feel? Is that part of the reason why you went back to boxing?
“Um, I don’t know if manly is the word. I actually said that one time and I regret saying that. Because I think the problem is inside yourself, not putting a name on it, you know?”

You talked about not having money after having a lot of it as a big star. So what was the first thing you did when you had money again?
“I don’t have it yet. Money has never been my god. I have turned down movies that were big commercial action movies for a lot of money because that’s not what I want to do. I didn’t have money to eat, okay. But I had one friend who every Saturday would give me money to eat at McDonald’s. No fancy restaurants anymore, no fashion models, just McDonald’s. But that’s where I came from.”

Why did you go back to Miami?
“I went back to Miami because that’s where all the darkness happened.”

Shouldn’t you then stay away from there?
“Yeah but my grandmother’s there, what’s left of my family is there, so I sometimes go there.”

Is your brother there?
[Rourke falls silent and looks hard at me from behind his sunglasses] ”He died . . . four months ago. Joe, yeah.”

When it becomes very dark in one’s life, people sometimes turn to religion. Was there no god for you?
”Oh yeah, there always was that. But he works in a funny way. He don’t work when you call him. ‘Hey, ****ing help me now!’ It don’t work like that.”

You obviously get along well with Robert Rodriguez. Are you going to do something else with him?
”I hope so. It’s up to his wife. She’s the boss really, and I seem to have a penchant for pissing her off. I think if it’s up to him, yes.”

Was Barfly a good experience for you?
“I didn’t want to do Barfly because all the men in my family for generations, three generations, have died in their 30s and 40s. My uncle, my great grandfather, my grandfather, my father, all died in their 30s and 40s from drinking, so I’ve had an aversion to that. I didn’t really want to glorify some ****ing drunk. But the director was very persistent. I was in London and he was there for ****ing two months. I’d walk down the street and he’d go, ‘Mickey!‘ and I’d think, ‘There’s that ******* again.’ So I finally did the movie. I liked the material but I didn’t care for Barbet Schroeder. I think he’s an ***.”

You’re the definitive Bukowski on screen.
“I liked him but, you know, he liked my brother Joe [taps the table twice with his knuckles] more than me, because him and Joe would drink in the morning. They’d go, ‘Hey, have a beer,’ at seven in the morning. I’d be taking my vitamins and my **** and I’d go, ‘Look at you guys. . .’ and he goes, ‘Hey, Joe’s a man, not you.’ I’d be like ‘**** you guys.’ But he was cool.”

When you were successful you never went on to drugs?
“No because living in Miami my whole life was really hard to keep my brother out of that. I couldn’t do it because I needed him to stay this way, because he got a little involved in that. I had sports, he didn’t have sports. So I would break his *** and all the other boys’ if they gave him ****.”

When you are successful everyone pretends to be your friend. Was there anyone when you weren’t successful anymore from the movie business who stuck by you?
“The guy in the white shirt there, Pinky. That’s why he’s here, because when everybody else, everybody else, was gone, that mother****er was there.”

Why don’t you need people today? Don’t you believe it if they’re friendly?
“I had to clean house because all the bikers, all that, they’re not around anymore. So now there’s really nobody. Well maybe two people, and the doctor.”

Thank you for your honesty.
“It’s all I got.”

same source

 

[Dora]

"Mickey Rourke Rising"
By Christopher Heard
October '05
Article Copyright Christopher Heard
From The GATE


Any actor working now being described as "the actor of his generation" grew up watching, admiring, and trying to imitate the actor described as "the actor of his generation."
-Mickey Rourke

Just ask Johnny Depp or Sean Penn or Brad Pitt about Mickey Rourke and you'll get an earful of animated praise for Rourke and his work.

From the time Rourke announced his presence on the movie map with a very cool supporting role in Body Heat as an ex-con named Teddy who is teaching his lawyer how to build an incendiary device for an arson the lawyer is planning to commit through his role as the mysterious John in the erotic 9 1/2 Weeks Rourke displayed that kind of detached cool that every two-bit punk actor in Hollywood has been trying to imitate for the past twenty years.

But Mickey Rourke self-destructed in the most public and blatant ways possible...and he knows it too. He thought he was bigger than the game itself and that wound back on him and bit him on the ***. The Pope Of greenwich Village, Angel Heart, Johnny Handsome, Year Of The Dragon, Barfly...all wonderful, resonating performances, but no one went to see any of them and that meant all the publicity in the world wasn't going to sweet him up to Hollywood studios.

I asked Rourke about this and other aspects of his crash and burn act while sitting with him and his little dog Loki on the terrace of his Four Seasons Hotel suite...

Chris Heard: "Was their something fundamental that happened that caused your career to fizzle, or was it a kind of sum total of a bunch of different things?"
Mickey Rourke: "Listen man, it was all me, man, all my fault. It was the combination of a lot of things, some of the things were buried so deep inside me I didn't even know that they were there. I had a lot of anger inside me and that came out at times that were not particularly advantageous to me career-wise."
CH: "I spoke to a few studio executives recently and they all, to a one, said that they were 'scared of Mickey Rourke' ."
MR: ( Chuckles ) "Yeah, I have heard that a lot over the last several years and again man, I had that coming, I gave those ****ers reason to be afraid of me."
CH: "For showing up at studio meetings with Hell;s Angels members flying full colors..."
MR: "Yeah, I did that..."
CH: "Is it true that you lost out on a big thriller {What became the over-hyped, truly mediocre In The Cut with Meg Ryan} because one of the actresses simply didn't want to work with you?"
MR: "Yeah that is true and it was bewildering to me because this particular actress { Nicole Kidman, who was involved in the film at the time } had never ever met me before. So what she was scared of was what she had heard."
CH: "So how do you make that right?"
MR: " I make that right by talking to someone...a doctor...a psychologist...about things. I got a new agent, a great young guy who told me right off that I had to accept his advice and work with him if he was to handle me and most importantly I have to make the absolute most of the opportunities I am getting...rebuild...you know."
CH: " I am a huge fan of yours man, I want to say that up front..."
MR: "Thanks man."
CH: " ...so I am delighted to see you back doing some work again. I am wondering about the time you got very huge in - late eighties, early nineties...there are a bunch of really talented people from that time that just don't really work much anymore...Eric Roberts..."
MR: "Oh man, Eric Roberts is one of the great actors ever man, I just worked with him a bit again on Spun - but he had some problems, health problems that have made it tough on hm, but he is working again..."
CH: "What about Michael Cimino..."
MR: "Michael's ****ing crazy man, that is his problem, he is just ****ing nuts."
CH: "You were in Heavens Gate-"
MR: "Yeah, I played a character named Nick Ray...that was actually a beautiful film - the French love it - but it was Michael man, he is such a ****ing nut, you wanna talk about a guy who won't play the Hollywood game..."
CH: "You also made Year Of The Dragon and Desperate Hours, both decent movies, with him -"
MR: "I didn't say he wasn't a superb talent, he is, I said once to a reporter that if I had to only make movies with Cimino the rest of my life that would be fine, but then he just went right off the ****ing rails man, a complete ****ing nut now."
CH: "I love your film Angel Heart and Johnny Handsome - I thought both were among the most overlooked movies of the 80's -"
MR: "Thanks man -"
CH: "Why didn't audiences dig those movies when they came out?"
MR: "Ah, who the **** knows about these things...although with Johnny Handsome Walter Hill {director} was trying to make several different movies, several different ideas and themes in one movie - I thought he pulled it off for the most part but it gave the movie this really uneven feel, but I loved the idea of making a noir crime thriller with a serious social message running right the **** through it. Angel Heart ...I don't know, it seems that people seem to get it now more than they did then."
CH: "Now that a new crop of filmmakers are seeking you out - what are you going to do differently now?"
MR: "Yeah, well , I have always been committed and I have always been professional...always...but before I never looked at all this **** as a business, I thought I could be an artist and just concentrate all my energy on being that - but that ain't realistic, this is a business , vile cutthroat ****ing business that you have to keep your eye on all the time or you will get ****ed over in a big way."
CH: "I was talking to Johnny Depp recently and he told me what a big admirer he was of yours..."
MR: "Yeah Johnny, he is my brother ...a great ****ing guy and a guy who knows how to play this ****ing Hollywood game...he does great work, he is a great actor, he does the Hollywood thing to support his movies and then he goes off and lives with his family. he knows how to do it...I wish I had his savvy when I was coming up man."
CH: " I'll use the word 'comeback' because I can't think of a better one - but was Francis Coppola a big part of that return for you -"
MR: "Comeback is a good work man, and yeah, Francis was great to me on Rainmaker - he had to really vouch big for me - the studio guys were telling him to get 'someone like Mickey Rourke' for the character of Bruiser ...Francis said to them 'but Mickey Rourke is still out there, still working, why not just get him'? The studio was hesitant, Francis made it happen. Then it turned out that the stuff was working out so good that Francis actually added in several scenes for Bruiser after we started shooting. But now guys like Robert Rodriques {who put Rourke in Once Upon A Time In Mexico at the suggestion of Johnny Depp } are wanting to work with me because they haven't heard the stories about me, they are just taking a look at the work and making their decisions based on that. I appreciate that and won't let them down."
CH: "If you had to do it all over again would you quit working as an actor to box again?"
MR: "You know man, I never look backwards...I have always been an athlete - I boxed before I acted in Miami - I just wanted to give it a shot, test myself that way physically, while I still had time."
CH: "A lot of people made fun of you during that time saying that you sucked as a boxer - but you had, what eleven fights and you lost only one -"
MR: "Thanks for pointing that out man, I actually didn't lose any of them - I had one draw. But I got beaten up pretty good in some of the bouts, busted nose, broken and compressed cheekbone...I was also dealing with other stuff in my life, relationship stuff...I also had done a movie for a lot of money that I considered to be a complete sell out...you know what I am talking about?"
CH: "Was it Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man?"
MR: "You got it...so if the circumstances were exactly the same, I would do exactly the same..."
CH: "Did that bother you, the fact that all your problems, your private life, was all up for public scrutiny?"
MR: "No, none of that stuff ever really bothered me because I asked for it - all actors seek out - all this bull**** about stars bitching and moaning about not having any privacy is bull**** - pure ****ing bull**** - while they are complaining about lack of privacy they have an army of PR flunkies trying to get them on the cover of magazines and keep them on the talk show circuit."
CH: "What are you hoping for now?"
MR: "Man, all I am hoping for is to be able to work - I think my best work is still ahead of me - I think all that I have been through in the last several years have only made me a better, more interesting actor."

same source

 

[Dora]

Quote Unquote
By Dominic Smith
Nov. 05' Issue of FHM Magazine

Mickey Rourke: The Domino Star On Spending Millions, Fighting Will Smith and Pulling Other Men's Girlfriends.

You star in the new bounty hunter action thriller Domino. Did you crack onto Keira Knightley?
Oh no. I"ll put it to you straight. I don't like actresses because most of them are mediocre and...I just don't like them. But I like Keira Knightley a lot. She's very smart she's a lady and she's somebody that you wanna put your arm around and say "**** off," if somebody's bothering her.

With movies like Domino, Man On Fire and Sin City you're in demand again, but here was a 13 yr. period when no mainstream director would touch you. How bad was that?
It was like being in purgatory. I was living in a city where they put you out like a cigarette butt. I was talking to my psychiatrist about five actors that I like and I said if those guys had to live like I'm living right now, they'd blow their ****ing brains out. And he said, "All those guys wouldn't know how to fall as far as you have; only you could fall this far."


You were massive in the late 1980s -- how did your career go so spectacularly, horrendously wrong?
It was never about my acting. It was about other issues that were out of control; an arrogance that I had and an angriness. There was stuff from my childhood that I wasn't able to put a lid on; I had a lot of issues of shame from a long time ago and they would turn to anger, which was easier to deal with than shame.
What were those issues?
I don't want to get into those. They're private issues from a long time ago.

Did you really go from being a multi-millionaire to being penniless?
You bet your ***. I was just existing, it was like being in jail. I had no money, I was selling my motorcycles off. But I was selfish, angry and arrogant and I ****ed it all up.


Is it true that at you lowest point you hacked your little finger off?
No comment. [holds up his hand] I've got my fingers.
But we read that you had it stitched back on...
Oh you did, yeah? [smiles] No comment. That has nothing to do with my career.
But its true?
No Comment. I can't answer that one.

Okay. At the height of your fame did you really have a gold-plated Rolls Royce?
Yes. Oh come on, when I grew up, Elvis was my man!
How much does a gold-plated Rolls Royce cost?
Too much! The car was over the top. It wasn't actually gold-plated but it had 14-carat gold paint and certain parts of it were gold-plated, yes.
Did you drive to the shops in it?
I only drove it four or five times, I felt embarrassed to get in it. But I used it a lot in Miami. It worked well there with white tires and my Cuban driver in a fedora, ha ha. The rappers used to grab their crotches and fall over when I drove past.

When your acting career went t*ts up you returned to your earlier vocation, boxing. How good were you?
I don't know because I came back when I was 34. I was very good at 18 but coming back at 34, I was good but I wasn't great. I was a good club fighter but I wasn't a Top 10 fighter.
A lot of guys that make boxing movies -- Will Smith, Russell Crowe - have trainers saying how they could have made it as boxers...
No ****ing way, Jack. No ****ing way.
Because Will Smith...
Read my lips: No. ****ing. Way. Get in the ring with me for one ****ing round and we'll see. We'll see what you're made of.
Will Smith told us he could last a round with Lennox Lewis...
No ****ing way. Lennox Lewis is a friend of mine, he couldn't last a round with Lennox.
Could you have?
I don't know. I was a different weight class. I've lasted a lot of rounds with middleweights, but [boxing legend] Tommy Hearns gave me a ****ing concussion; he hit me at two o'clock in the afternoon and I was throwing up at midnight. I was Roberto Duran's sparring partner for a year and I learnt a lot, so when actors say they could be professional fighters they're full of crap. With a capital K.

Didn't you use to know the mob boss John Gotti?
No comment.
Nothing at....
No comment. Let's stay away from that one.

Okay. During your stay in London you were pictured with a different girl every night. What's your secret?
I don't have a secret.
So how are you so successful?
I'm not. Not in my book. I understand what you're trying to say but I'm not. If I had my pick I'd be with one lady.
Would that be your ex-wife? (His Wild Orchid co-star Carre Otis who Rourke married in 1992)
Yeah, sure. So, you know...we do crazy things to numb the pain. Does that answer your question? Why do you think I have seven dogs? Because I can't sleep in my bed without them. Because the bed's too big.

The FHM office was in awe of you pulling a girl in front of her boyfriend. How'd you manage that?
I can't go into that, that's too personal. But I've got to give you points for your questions.
So how did you do it? She was with her boyfriend!
Off the record?
No, it has to be on the record...
You ****! Ha ha. I asked her, "Do you want to go with him?" And she said no, so I said fine. He was screaming and I said, "She doesn't want to go with you."
And then she went back to your hotel?
I have no idea. [laughs uproariously]. But we're friends now, me and Andre (the girl's boyfriend ). We're friends, he came to the hotel the next morning , we had coffee together.
When you'd just been with his girl?
Yeah, but now he realises she's not that great a girlfriend. But me and Andre are friends.
But what's happened to her?
I have no idea. That's his problem.
Why wasn't Andre angry with you?
Because I talked to him, I had a cappuccino with him.
And what did you say to him?
The truth.
Which was what?
Ha ha, that I can't get into. But that's it, that's the story.

You take your dog Loki everywhere -- but why do you keep chihuahuas?
I got attached to them. My ex-wife brought one home one time and I was like, "What the **** is that?" But then I fell in love with the dog, and that was Loki's mother. Small dogs have a lot of spirit and they live longer -- 16, 17 years old. Loki's 11 and I've told her I need her around another 11 years.
Do you get upset when they die?
Oh yes. It's just as bad as it is with a human. Oh yes.
Have you ever sat on one?
No. I've never sat on one.

Is it true you have an IRA tattoo?
No. People write ****.

You once talked about an A-List "****ing ****" that stopped you getting a role, 'cos they felt you were a has-been -- who was it?
I don't know. That must have been old angry Mickey spouting off.

There are also stories that you've had plastic surgery that's gone wrong....
No, it was just five nose operations for boxing. It was scar tissue that had to be scraped away, and then I broke it so they had to re-break it with a hammer and then put it back together. The cartilage was gone so they had to take it from my ear.

Finally, you've been right to the top, sunk to the bottom, and now you're heading back to the top again. What's the one lesson you've learned?
That's a good question. [long pause] At the end of the day there's only one person responsible for where you're at and that's you. You can't point your finger at anybody else. You're responsible for what's happening to you -- and that's it. And you gotta have the balls and be man enough to realise that.

same source

 

[Dora]

To members of the media, the words "sardonic" and "Mickey Rourke" go together like the entwined lovers in Wild Orchid, the Rio de Janeiro flesh fest from 1990. To Miamians Rourke is a bad boy, but he's our bad boy.

To the film industry he's a bad boy whose years of tirades and partying have winnowed to a select few the number of people willing to give him a break. These days he claims to have cleaned up his act, but only time will tell if he's serious.

Rourke is an accomplished actor whose body of work spans three decades, and whose appeal to his fans is perpetuated just as much by his outlandish antics as it is from his acting chops. And he does have chops. Rourke attended the prestigious Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute during the Seventies. He's worked on at least 52 films, some with the likes of Francis Ford Coppola, Sean Penn, and Tony Scott. In Sin City -- which opens next week and stars an ensemble cast that includes Bruce Willis, Benicio Del Toro, Josh Hartnett, Rosario Dawson, and Jessica Alba -- Rourke plays the character Marv, an obsessed man who roams the dark streets seeking vengeance for the murder of his girl. He follows that with a role in Domino, a film by Tony Scott (Top Gun, True Romance, Enemy of the State, and Man on Fire, with Rourke).

The once-rugged actor, whose black-Irish looks have been transformed into a weird pastiche of cheek implants and uneven skin, is poised on the verge of a huge comeback -- Sin City, which screened last week at Show West, the mini film festival attendant to the SXSW music conference -- has generated tremendous buzz and favorable early reviews.

In the spring of 1992, Rourke went a few rounds with New Timeswhen the free weekly decided to make a little sport of Rourke's sideline as a boxer. That was right after his appearance in the disastrous Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man with Miami-affiliated costar Don Johnson. The rest of the Nineties were rough on Rourke, who had his scenes cut from Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line and was reduced to taking bit parts in Get Carter and Buffalo '66. Rourke, who once owned a nightclub in Miami Beach, began spending less and less time here.

Recently, though, El Marielito has been hanging out in these parts again, and his career is showing signs of reviving, thanks to peaceful collaborations with directors Scott and Robert Rodriguez.

Here's what Mickey has to say about the movie business, his ups and downs, Miami, and taking it all like a man.

New Times:In your career, you've managed to come back from the dead more times than the zombies inEvil Dead. Are you hopingSin City is going to do for you what Pulp Fiction did for Travolta?

Mickey Rourke:Well, I'll tell you this: Travolta didn't raise half as much hell as I did. I mean, you pay for that ****. Travolta, even though he went a few years not being at the top of his game, he still had work. He was still playing the game. You know, it's a game and you got to be able to play well with others. I didn't do that all the time and I paid the consequences.

What sort of consequences?

I mean, there were a good ten or fifteen years there that were pretty rough. I had to sell all my cars, my bikes. I couldn't get work. You got to be able to work. People would say, "Ah yeah, Mickey's a good actor, but can we get someone else. Someone we can handle?" That's kind of what happened in Domino, my next film. Luckily, Tony Scott, he went to bat for me. He wasn't afraid to stick with his vision.

You've worked with Scott in the past; you seem to have a lot of respect for him.

Yeah, Tony Scott is the consummate professional. He knows what he wants in a shot and he works with you till it's exactly right. The guy is just, he's respectful to the craft. He's really the most professional guy in the business. You want a director that can get that performance out of you. Not everyone is able to do that. He's one of those that can. I admire him for that.

How do you view your mid-period work, which was panned by the critics of the day but has now become regarded as influential and classic? I'm thinking in particular of Angel Heart, which has been extremely influential on European directors including Dario Argento?

Right, right, well you know a lot of my stuff is like that. Nine 1/2 Weeks and Rumble Fish didn't do anything here in the States either. I mean nothing. With Rumble Fish, Francis, you know, he had a vision, but Universal didn't know what the hell to do with it. It was so different than anything that was being done here. People didn't understand it. It wasn't till I got overseas, in Paris, that I realized, ****, people really dig this.

What do you think is the reason for that disparity?

The Europeans, they have a different way of experiencing film. It's more a part of their culture over there. They don't see it as entertainment like we do over here. To them it's more like art.

A lot of people don't realize you have a strong relationship with the Cuban community here in Miami. In your boxing career you even fought under the name "El Marielito." Do you secretly long to be Cuban?

I was raised in Miami. We used to live over by [Miami Edison Senior High School]. When I was growing up, we lived with my grandmother behind this Laundromat. That was around the same time that all the Cubans started to come over. It was an explosion, you know, and a lot of those people started to move into the neighborhood. You know, everyone knows, I'm into boxing, but even before that I was always into baseball and these guys, they could play, man. So, that's how it started, playin' ball. They're a hard-working, fun-loving people, and you know, I eat my black beans and the rice. I love it.

You must miss that being away from home, huh?

Oh no way. I hired the chef from this Cuban restaurant in L.A. I take him everywhere.

Save me some platanitos.

(Laughs) Sure thing.

You played so many different types of roles, from action in Man on Fire, to impotent ex-con opposite Tupac inBullet, and somewhere in between a Skinamax pseudo p*rn star in Wild Orchid. Thank you for that, by the way, from every teenager with late-night cable. But what does a script have to have for you to get interested?

You look at the story, you look at whose making it, but that's all part of the game. In the end it comes down to being able to relate in some way, however small, to the character. I mean, sometimes that's harder than others.

Give an example.

I did this movie in Italy, Francesco (based on the Hermann Hesse novel), and I'm supposed to be St. Francis of Assisi on this beautiful mountain talking one-on-one with God, right? This is Italy you know, they take this stuff really seriously. So I got my hands all in the air and I'm doing this passionate look with my face, but inside I'm like, jeez this is really kind of a stretch for me.

What do you do in those situations? Pray?

You just work through it. You keep doing it over and over till the director feels they've got something. In Assisi, the director, Lillian [Cabaña], she was really nice. I was getting frustrated, but you know we would try it one way and then she would say, "That was good. This time try to do it like this or maybe like that." And eventually we nailed it. It's a process.

Sin City is your second film working with Robert Rodriguez. What is it about his style that draws you to want to work with him?

Well, Robert is his own person. He's unique. He's another one of these guys that has a vision and he's not going to allow anyone to alter his perception of how it should look. A lot of people say, "Oh, when is Robert Rodriguez going to make a serious film?" I tell them, "He doesn't have to." The guy locks himself down here in Texas and he does exactly what he wants to do. He's immensely talented. He does things his own way and a lot of people in this business just can't accept that.

Rodriguez wanted to bring in Frank Miller onSin City and "those people" didn't take too kindly to that, huh?

Yeah, Frank Miller co-directs on Sin City. The Director's Guild wouldn't let him do it. Robert quit the Guild over that. He doesn't need them if they are going to interfere with his vision. He said, "**** it, I'll do it my way." That's what you need in a director. They have to be willing to fight for what's in their head, you know.

Were you aware ofSin City prior to being approached for the film?

Well, I was never into comic books.

Graphic novels, Mickey.

Right, but I read the script and I said to myself there's something here. My character, Marv, he's a serious dude. But it was all done in front of a blue screen, so even I didn't fully realize how cool it was going to look. Until I saw the end result, then I was blown away. It's incredible, man. It looks great.

Looking back on the character you played in Johnny Handsome, who underwent radical plastic surgery that changed his life but also made him unrecognizable, what do you have to say about your own apparent fascination with the knife?

Hold on a second.

A tiny dog yelps in the background. While Rourke admonishes his pet, we can't help but wonder if it's the same chihuahua that he took to the set of Luck of the Draw, and then walked out in the middle of shooting when the producers refused to include the dog in the film. Maybe it's Moco, the chihuahua Rourke's character cradles throughout every scene in Once Upon a Time in Mexico. Displaying all the skills of a Miami native with plastic surgery, Rourke tactfully dodges the question, comes back, and starts talking about boxing. Stay tuned. Rourke promised to let New Times follow him around Miami Beach as he paints the town red. We want to make sure he doesn't stick too tightly to his new reformed lifestyle; otherwise we'll have nothing to write about. So we're bringin' the booze and the dope. Some people might call that enabling, but we call it serious journalism.

miaminewstimes

 

[Dora]

same source

 

[Dora]

The Domino Effect back to main Articles page
Entertainment Weekly
October 21, 2005
by Josh Rottenberg




After a posh upbringing, Domino Harvey lived a violent, seedy life as an L.A. bounty hunter. She died before she could see her story on screen.


The set of a Tony Scott movie is a place where every knob goes to at least 11. On this fall afternoon in L.A.'s shuttered, elegantly decayed Ambassador Hotel, the knobs go to at least 12 or 13. The Ambassador is where Scott is shooting his latest film, Domino, a gonzo action-comedy about real-life model--turned--bounty hunter Domino Harvey, played by Keira Knightley. Domino has been Scott's passion project for more than a decade. The 61-year-old director of such testosterone workouts as Top Gun, True Romance, and Crimson Tide has spent years getting to know Harvey and drawing out her wild life story--from growing up in a world of privilege as the daughter of The Manchurian Candidate star Laurence Harvey to chasing down fugitive criminals and flirting with death--and now he's hell-bent on doing it justice. Even though today's scene is mainly dialogue, with Knightley and costars Mickey Rourke, Christopher Walken, Jacqueline Bisset, Mena Suvari, and Edgar Ramirez seated around a conference table, Scott is shooting it like a guns-blazing Mexican standoff, multiple cameras rolling and energy amped up. Between takes, he's a blur in a baseball hat and running shoes. "Now we're cooking!" he yells, pumping his fist. Smash cut to nearly a year later: A somber Scott is seated in the production offices he shares with his brother, Ridley, quietly reflecting on the tragic turn the project has taken. Harvey, the muse of his movie, whom he came to consider almost a daughter, died on June 27 of an accidental overdose of painkillers at age 35. Though she had long wrestled with drug addiction and was facing federal charges of drug trafficking, Scott is still stunned. "In the 12 years I knew her, she was always getting in trouble," says Scott. "But at the end, I never saw her look healthier. She said, 'I'm clean. I feel really good.' Then bang, she was gone." Harvey lived on the edge; her fatalistic motto was "Heads you live, tails you die," and she sings a song with those exact lyrics on the Domino soundtrack. Scott made his film in that risk-taking spirit, pulling together a bizarro ensemble cast--which also includes Tom Waits, Macy Gray, and, spoofing themselves, former Beverly Hills, 90210 stars Ian Ziering and Brian Austin Green--and shooting in a manic, psychedelic style, with almost epilepsy-inducing shifts of film speed and color and music. But he couldn't have predicted Harvey's coin would have come up tails so soon, turning what was meant to be a fun, rock & roll action movie into a postmortem tribute. Now a film that had already posed significant marketing challenges--Scott describes it as Taxi Driver meets The Royal Tenenbaums, which makes about as much sense as anything--has become even trickier to sell, and its shell-shocked director is left wondering what kind of life it will have. "You never know," he says. "Film is such a fickle thing." Scott first encountered Harvey's story more than a decade ago in a British tabloid newspaper. Immediately seeing a potential movie in her rebellious odyssey, he tracked her down in the Beverly Hills home of her mother, '60s British fashion model Paulene Stone. "Domino was living above the garage with all her guns and Soldier of Fortune magazines and grubby underwear," Scott remembers. "That's what was fascinating to me: how polar opposite her worlds were." For years, he conducted interviews with Harvey, gathering material about her reckless youth and adventures with her bounty-hunting compatriots, Ed and Choco (played in the film by Rourke and Venezuelan newcomer Ramirez). A couple of writers took a crack at screenplays but they felt too conventional to Scott. Finally, he hooked up with writer-director Richard Kelly, hot off his cult hit Donnie Darko. Kelly spun the basic elements of Harvey's life into a completely invented, zigzagging story involving the Mob, a complicated con gone wrong, and reality television. "I thought the story should be a journey into the heart of darkness," Kelly says a little grandly. "I see it as a big satire, in a way, not only of action films but of where American culture is headed." Scott brought the project to Twentieth Century Fox, where he and his brother have a first-look deal, but, in the wake of his last film, the critically panned Denzel Washington revenge movie Man on Fire, the studio balked. "They said, 'Oh f---, he wants to do this now?'" says Scott. "I think they were a little scared of me and the material." Scott sent the script to New Line, which put up $15 million for domestic distribution rights and gave him free creative rein. "We thought it was unique and would stand out, and it was not that expensive," says New Line production president Toby Emmerich. He laughs. "We were probably too naive to be scared." Ever since seeing Knightley in Pirates of the Caribbean, Scott had envisioned the actress playing Harvey: "For me, Keira was Domino. There's a little bit of Princess Di in there and a little bit of a football thug." When he sent the script to her, though, it took her some time to wrap her mind around it. "I'd never heard of Domino Harvey, " she says. "I thought, that's too crazy a story to be real. It wasn't until I met Tony that he went, 'No, I can introduce you to the girl.'" The role took Knightley far out of her comfort zone. Working with guns freaked her out ("I f---ing hated it--I'd never make it in the army"), while casting her own body double for the nude scenes was simply mortifying ("I've never cast a bum before. Do I introduce myself? Is it rude to stare at their bottoms?"). But while Domino couldn't have been a more radical departure from the film she'd just shot, Pride & Prejudice, she was happy switching things up: "I don't see the point in making films that are going to be exactly the same as each other." Knowing how Harvey had wrestled with her demons, few involved in Domino were shocked when news broke of her overdose. Still, her death in June hit Scott hard. Says Rourke: "I don't think I realized how deeply Tony felt about her until he got up to speak at the funeral. He could hardly talk. He was crushed." After Harvey's passing, questions suddenly swirled around the movie. It was too late to shoot a new ending. But within a few days, New Line did announce it was moving the film's release date earlier, from Thanksgiving to August. Scott insisted he couldn't get the film ready that quickly, so they settled on Oct. 14. He also had misgivings about "trying to capitalize off of someone dying. It just felt like bad taste in a way." Now, after all the years he's put into this project, Scott doesn't seem sure whether he's succeeded or not, or which way the dominoes will fall when the film hits theaters. "This movie is ****ed up," he says. "I might have missed. You either love it or you hate it." He pauses and stares into his nearly empty cup of coffee. "Most of all, I just wish she could have seen it."

uniquelyrourke

 

[Dora]

Only in Hollywood: The Wild, Dark World of Mickey Rourke
By Ruben V. Nepales
October 30th, '05 entertainment column from ICQ7.net

LOS ANGELES: MICKEY ROURKE'S LIFE IS AS WILD AND DARK AS THAT OF THE TITLE CHARACTER IN "DOMINO," THE ACTION-DRAMA FILM IN WHICH HE STARS.

Once considered among Hollywood's top actors, he reigned in the 1980s, steaming up the screen with "91/2 Weeks" and the controversial "Angel Heart" where he had sex scenes with a nude Lisa Bonet who was a minor at the time. Bill Cosby led an outcry against the film, since Lisa had just gotten of the family-oriented "Cosby" TV sitcom, where she played one of his daughters.

When Mickey's career hit the skids, he returned to boxing, one of his earlier jobs. Images of Mickey in the ring, bloodied, were sad illustrations of what had become of the fine actor, who many had thought would go to lead a long, thriving and distinguished career as a thespian. Instead, the whole world saw parodies of the person.

Today, many believe that Mickey has had facial plastic surgery. They lament that the handsome, expressive face has become puffy. Not a few feel that Mickey should have just allowed nature to take its course.

In "Domino" directed by Tony Scott ("Top Gun," "Enemy of the State"), Mickey plays Ed, leader of a band of modern day bounty hunters (they do exist, running down fugitives for a price).

Kiera Knightley plays the title role loosely based on the true-life character Domino Harvey. Not even the most imaginative screenplay could have concocted the twists and turns of the this real Domino's life.

The daughter of English actor Laurence Harvey, Domino had a privileged upbringing. She attended boarding school in England and move to Beverly Hills in her teens. She was a ramp model in Paris. But Domino was restless. While she was down and out in LA, she found her true calling -- as a bounty hunter.

Venezuelan actor Edgar Ramirez makes an impact in this movie as Choco, who joins Domino and Ed in tracking down and capturing thugs and criminals who have jumped bail.

Mickey's girlfriend, a brunette bombshell, sat in the back of the hotel meeting room as he answered questions with characteristic humor and candor. Below are excerpts of our press con with cursing, chain-smoking actor.

You seem at ease in the movie. Does the world of bounty hunters appeal to you?
I was on medication [laughter]. No, it was mainly interesting because the director was Tony Scott. I wouldn't have made this particular movie if Tony wasn't the director. It would have been like a macho formula movie. That wouldn't have interested me because (then) it would be boring.
You're a father figure of sorts.
More like a big brother, yeah.
Do your regret not having children?
No. I have seven dogs. Well, one passed away two weeks ago. I have six dogs left. They're my kids. If I couldn't guarantee that I would always be there for kids, then I wouldn?t bring something into the world. I never really wanted to have children because I never wanted to do to them what happened to me because that was such a nightmare (his step-dad, said to be a strict disciplinarian, reportedly slapped his kids around).

You've been photographed with this small dog. What are the names and breed of your other dogs?
Where's the dog? He was supposed to be here an hour ago. He's late. He's coming with me to work in Canada on Friday so he's getting the papers today. My dogs are of different breeds -- Chihuahua, Pug and Mini-Eskimo. Their names are Loki, Chocolate, Ruby Baby, Bella Loca, Jaws and La Negra.

Can you talk about Edgar Ramirez, who makes such an impact in this movie?
In the beginning, they were thinking of somebody else doing the role, some gringo flavor of the month Hollywood guy [laughter]. I grew up with Latin people in Florida and there's no way that a gringo can play the part. Unless you get Al Pacino -- but somebody like him comes around only every 30 years. To do that kind of acting, you're better off getting a Latin actor instead of listening to someone with a bad accent. So I'm very glad that they hired Edgar. I saw a movie that Edgar did. I said to Tony you've got to hire this ****ing guy. You can't put this white guy in there [laughter]. As soon as Edgar walked into the room, I liked him. I said to Tony, come one, please.

Your character has a little bit of an underlying relationship or an attraction to Keira's character. Are you as shy as your character?
I was really more in love with Edgar's character then Keira's [laughter]. You didn't know there was something going on between Ed and Choco? You didn't see that?
No, I didn't.
Well, you've got to watch the movie again. I mean, he's a good-looking man.

What was so challenging about this role?
I rolled out of bed and said the lines. What took a bit of effort was to communicate with Tony that I don't want to make Ed just this one-dimensional thug who is a bounty hunter. I want him to have layers. I wanted my character to have a funny bone, be curious or be confused -- so it's always challenging that way.

It's great to see you back on the screen. What happened...and how are you a different man?
What was the I came from the street and when you make it, you start making money in this business.
You're in this town, you beat on your chest a little bit and think, you're never going to disappear and then one day, you fall on your *** and it takes 14 years to pick your *** back up. It's a rude awakening because when you **** up in this town, it's very easy for people to go like this (he made a dismissive wave with his hand). That's the nature of people to do that. This is a town built on envy. When you fall, you don't always get a second chance. I worked very hard to get a second chance. I thought I would get it in a year or two or three. But it took over 10 years so it has been a very humbling experience. I don't feel that I deserve to be back more than I feel grateful to have an opportunity for a second chance. I don't believe in luck because I worked real hard at it. I felt the years go by because when you fall from grace the way I have, you live in shame. It's very embarrassing to be considered finished, washed up or broken man. When your return doesn't happen in one, two, three, four, five, six years, you start to believe it's over too.
It's interesting to hear you talk about your so-called disappearance because it sounds as if you were mystified about why you couldn't go back that fast while the media made it seem that you left the business in a mystery.
It was both. It was mainly my fault, though. I was good at blaming someone or something else. It's very easy to go "It's this mother****er's fault." When I had to look in the mirror one day, I realized that it wasn't just my career that I lost. I lost a lot of things along the way. I realized it was me, not everybody else and it was from being young, arrogant, irresponsible and angry -- that's not a bad cocktail. I mean, that is a bad cocktail [laughter] especially when it goes on for 14 years.
So what has changed?
One day when you lose everything and you look around and you go **** the guy in the mirror, you change everything -- the people you have around you, what you do everyday. The change is very hard especially if you don't want to change. It's a lonely dark road until you get any daylight.
Can you be more specific?
I didn't have any rules for myself before. As soon as my balls dropped, there were no rules for me, which was wrong. It was just an angry, stupid way of how I looked at my life -- no happy endings there. What changed is my taking responsibility for the consequences of when, let's say, my fuse is too short and all hell breaks loose. You're going to read about it the next day and it's going to be embarrassing. And there are going to be consequences with who might want to hire me for a job. I never used to thing about any of that stuff.
When did you change?
When I sat down in my house as they were taking away the furniture and everybody, everything was gone except me and the dog. Yeah [laughter].
What are you biggest regrets then?
Every ****ing thing. I made 10 million mistakes so if I can't say that I made a million mistakes and that I have a million regrets, then I'm a piece of ****. I have a lot of regrets. I did a lot of stupid crap. I looked at Keira -- she's 20 years old and she was in the make-up trailer reading a book, being very proper, knowing her lines and she was on time. I went, why the **** couldn't I do that? That's a regret. It's not a big one but well, it is a big one.
So do you still have dreams?
Just nightmares, yeah.

With you admission of all your mistakes and ups and downs, what advice can you give to someone like Robert Downey Jr. who is back?
He's been around long enough. He should know better. I think he's working now. He's doing all right now, I heard. I just wish him luck. You know, stay off the pipe, brother.

You said that you used to be very angry but....
No, but I'm still angry. I am just not saying it.
So these days, what makes you angry and when you do, how do your restrain yourself?
[joking] I have a dog about this big and I kick him in the *** really hard [laughter].
I said too much already. I am just going along for the ride now, just watching and listening, and no flapping my wings too much because it's nice to be back to work. I don't want to rock the boat anymore. My *** is very sore. I have been sitting on it for a long time.

And how do you deal with fame now?
The only thing I could say is, people come up to me in the last 6 months and they go, "Oh you're back." I look at them like, you don't know where the **** I've been for 14 years. You don't know what it's like when you've been gone so long that it doesn't feel like you're back You still feel like you're in the garbage can so it's like, it's nice to have the lid off but you can still smell the ****.
But don't you feel that this suffering makes you a better actor?
Yeah, sometimes you could be intelligent about it and not put yourself in a place where you have to suffer so much.
So you still struggle everyday?
The old demon is still there. I have to keep him quiet.

We are glad you came to this interview because we hadn't seen you in a long time.
Well, nobody wanted to talk to me for 14 years so I'm glad to be here.

same source

 

[Dora]

Icon?
By: Jimmy Im
INKED Magazine
Spring 06' Edition

On film, Mickey Rourke is a quiet storm. He slips in unexpectedly, but his dynamics and edgy performances change the scene. That's what makes him who he is, and it's the reason he's still relevant. He could sell out, but that's just not his style.

It may have been his modest roles in the early '80's films like Diner and Body Heat that first gave us reason to admire him, but his slick, off-kilter performance in Nine 1/2 Weeks made him unforgettable. The array of sensitive, tough guy characters that he portrayed in complex movies like Angel Heart and Year Of The Dragon manifested naturally from his already confident and masculine sangfroid. Perhaps it's no coincidence that he studied at the legendary Lee Strasberg Institute, where other actors of his brooding range like Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken are alums.

When his acting career took a slight nosedive in the early '90's, he took the temporary route as a professional boxer, and in winning the majority of his fights, he proved to the world that acting was not his only gift. For Rourke, boxing was a necessary outlet to exercise and exorcise his inner demons in a professional manner, as his reputation was not top-of-the-morning material (Kim Basinger, his Nine 1/2 Weeks co-star, once called him the "human ashtray".) Boxing was so important to him that he declined Quentin Tarantino's offer to re-enact the art as Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis' role) in Pulp Fiction.

Rourke's tough guy image is personified through his seven tattoo's, which include various Chinese symbols, a bull's head, and a symbol for the IRA. Through his artwork, it isn't hard to read where he's at.

True to form, Rourke's recent return to the big screen was subtle but exact as his fearlessness and macho disposition remained intact for indie films like Spun and blockbusters like Sin City. Countless left hooks and years of partying have transformed his smooth, slick pretty boy looks into grizzled and worn down. It's a face that only he could carry with so much bad-*** attitude. It was once thought that Colin Farrell had displaced him as the number one Hollywood bad boy. The truth is, Rourke never really left.

same source

 

[Dora]

Maxim Fashion Magazine (German Issue)
Dec 06'

People always want you to stay fresh.
We'll, when we met him in Miami, Mickey Rourke did not look very fit. But at least he made it back to the big stage after a deep fall and a long search to find himself - and so he can relate to changeful times.

Many people think I am crazy, but my dogs were always there for me.

Mickey Rourke simply can't sit down for long or stand still, and he constantly comes up with new ideas: Hey, what if I wear this bathrobe? Or hey, what about me lying here on the bed with Loki?
The Maxim Photo shoot with the Hollywood star has been going on for 2 hours at The Raleigh Hotel. Rourke always stays here when he is in Miami, and we have to fight the same problems as anyone else when it comes to Rourke, he simply does what he wants. lays on the bed, hops into the bathroom, walks out on the balcony. Suddenly he wants to be photographed on the rooftop of the hotel, but once there he gets acrophobia. Despite all this hustling around, he is not unfriendly, Rourke is witty and obliging. One moment he acts tough, nearly every phrase is garnished with a hefty "****!". Then again he seems vulnerable and insecure. He is mercurial and always on the move, just like a boxer in the ring.
Three hours later it is shortly after 8:00pm. The pictures are finally in the can. Rourke stands on the balcony of his suite, smokes and looks down on the pool, his favorite spot as he later tells us. We sit down in his suite and start the interview.
Do you consider yourself a patient person?
We'll, rather not. But regarding my career, I would say yes. Where I come from, you don't get anything for free. That's the same in any job. You have to work hard. At age 11, I had a job at this place before school, mopping floors and stuff like that. Afterwards I went to school, to sports and the next job. I am very disciplined and focused (laughs). Nobody expects that from me. But without discipline, you get easily defeated. That is why I love sports. Because in them you need discipline and hard work.

In 1991 you gave up your acting career to become a professional boxer for 4 years. Why?
I was disappointed to have stopped boxing. I wanted to go back and do it better.

Did you miss the fights?
No, I missed the rituals with the guys in the gym. Working out together, working with a trainer. Seeing how your body shape changes, how you become stronger, to see how much you can accomplish, concentrating fully on the fight, concentrating on one evening, one fight and aiming at it fully. But my body could not take it any longer. The doctors told me that I would suffer brain damage if I continued fighting. We'll, overall the time was not so good for me, but I needed to do it. Otherwise I would have had the feeling that I was running away from something.

And today? Are you still running away from something?
No. There comes a time when you no longer want to run away. My brother Joe died one and a half years ago from cancer. He was 39 and when he died in my arms and I realized that everything can simply disappear (snaps his fingers). That has changed me. I don't care anymore about material possessions. When I buy something expensive, I don't care about it. I lost a diamond ring and my bike was stolen, but I do not care. Since Joe died, nothing can really move me, that was the worst thing to ever happen. My dog Loki is my best friend.

I can see this. You don't make a move without your dog.
That is why many people think I am a little bit crazy. But my dogs have always been there for me. In 1994 I was on the ropes. I used to be arrogant and angry. I did not respect anyone. I had the wrong friends and made a life a living hell for everyone, my wife, the movie directors and my colleagues.

Why was it that way?
Out of any reason, I had to make everyone my enemy. My step-dad was a cop and he did bad things at our home when I was a child. Therefore, I became a very angry person, even when I was an adult. Because of this anger I lost everything, my career, my wife, my house, my money, my credibility as an actor.

Only your dogs stayed with you...
(laughs) yes that's right. Bo Jack, Loki's dad and Loki herself. They were always there for me. When I had something to eat, they always came first. When Bo died, I gave him mouth to mouth resuscitation for 40 minutes. As weird as this sounds, I learned through my dogs to take on responsibilities. And now that we are better off, we still have us.

What does your current girlfriend have to say about this?
I have affairs, but no steady girlfriend. That's okay for me. (What Rourke means by "affairs" we can see during the preparations for this production. When we met in his hotel room 2 days prior, he lies in bed relaxed, with 2 women. The next day he has "a girlfriend from L.A." on visit. During the weekend, Rourke parties all night).

He sleeps until the afternoon, goes to eat at his favorite spot, an Italian restaurant, then he goes from one night club to the others until the wee hours of the morning...to visit his "girlfriends".
What is your pick up line?
Do you really want to know? "I can take you home and **** you until you go crazy".

And that works?
Yes.

What is better...to die early or grow old?
I don't like aging. Your body decays. You don't think about growing old when you are young. And to speak the truth, society does not respect aging.

How do you mean this?
David Beckham for example. He got fired from the English national team, because at 31, he was too old. People always want to be fresh, to stay fresh. No matter what you achieve, everybody keeps talking about your age.

Where will you be in 10 years?
(shows the balcony off of his suite) Out there.

Why?
(Rourke gets up "to piss" and when he comes back, he stops in front of the mirror hanging in the hotel room). I recently saw an old picture of me. The only one I like, and I thought...wow, what a dumb, stupid, angry man! I might not be as handsome anymore, but in return, I am not dumb, stupid and angry. I am grateful about that.

Why do you wear the necklace with the heart? Is it a good luck charm?
Yes, I always wear it. On the heart is engraved "Joe". The name of my deceased brother.

Do you pray?
I used to, but since the death of my brother, my faith has been faltering. I get angry with God because he makes us grow old and die and death is a lonesome, nasty and stinking business. I pray with Father Pete, a priest from New York who is a good friend. When I am in New York, I go and see him, we talk about God and faith.

How can we picture this?
We go to the basement room of the church, drink some red wine, smoke a cigarette and talk. Then I confess.

To see you like this, one has the feeling that you wear a large belt around your heart to seal it off. A belt that protects you from pain and frustration, but which simultaneously does not let anything get close to you.
(laughs) yes, kind of. But it is not only a belt, it's a prickly, thorny black thing.

same source

 

[Dora]

Mickey's Mission
By: Lina Das
Night&Day Live (UK)
July 02, 06'

Mickey Rourke once cut off his own finger, hates women who have plastic surgery and loves dogs more than human beings - no wonder he was so desperate to play the sadistic Darrius Sayle in Stormbreaker, says Lina Das.

The star of 91/2 Weeks, Angel Heart, and Barfly. Mickey Rourke is the epitome of the star who had it all and then promptly lost it. A reputation as a hellraiser and bad career choices – he turned down roles in hits such as Platoon, Rain Man and Pulp Fiction, but accepted flops such as Wild Orchid and Harley Davidson And The Marlboro Man – saw him turn his back on acting to resume his childhood passion, boxing.

Four years as a prizefighter left his face a mess, his health shaky, his finances rocky and a return to acting nigh on impossible, as the former golden boy found all of Hollywood’s doors closed to him. But after almost a decade in obscurity, the 49 year old has clawed his way back into the limelight with roles in films such as Sin City and Once Upon A Time Mexico. Married twice, first to Debra Feuer and most famously to model and actress Carre Otis, he is now single and living in New York.

‘I love my dogs more than most beings. When my second wife left me, I didn’t want to find another woman just for the sake of it – a plaster to cover up my wound – so I bought a dog instead. I have five now – Loki, Jaws, Ruby Baby, La Negra and Bella Loca. Loki is my number one. When I was filming Stormbreaker in England, I had to have her flown over because I missed her so much. I had to get her from New York to Paris and Paris to England, and also pay for someone to come with her. The whole thing cost about 3,000 pounds. When I found Bella Loca in Texas, she had a nail in her head from some debris flying around from a tornado. No one wanted her, so I took her in. I guess I feel more comfortable with my dogs than with most people. They’re really like children to me. I’ve lost about four or five of them over the past few years and it’s been brutal, Loki’s father was a dog called Bo Jack, and when I lost him I had to talk to a priest about it, I was so distraught. He told me that I’d be with him again one day and I kept going to him, ‘Are you sure? Are you sure? Are you sure?

I only drink after midnight and on weekends. My father drank himself to death at the age 49, so I guess that probably has something to do with it. My father left home when I was six years old and I didn’t meet up with him again for more than 20 years. It’s no picnic to go up to your father and say, ‘Where the hell have you been for the past 25 years?’ He wasn’t that enthusiastic about meeting me, but I was never angry with him about leaving. I’d say I probably put him up on a pedestal and made him out to be much more of a man in my head than he was in reality. It’s hard to actually say it, but he probably was a bit of a disappointment to me. But hey, I wouldn’t have been able to live with my mother either. He only lived another year after that meeting, so I wasn’t ever able to see him again.

I’m very particular about the women I’m with....up until midnight. It’s amazing how alcohol can make a woman seem more attractive than she really is. I’ve been with a lot of women, but who’s counting? Saying that, it’s nothing I’m proud of. I don’t know why I do it, but it’s a physical need I have, and sometimes it’s great and sometimes it’s not that great. Sometimes, afterwards, I just want to blow my brains out because you bump into the same old people everywhere you go – blonde girls with bad lips and fake boobs – and who really wants to spend time talking to that? I’m not looking for a deep relationship and you can’t go looking for something like that anyway – it just happens and you know it immediately. And I do know you’re not going to meet that person at a nightclub.

There are probably more idiots in Hollywood than anywhere else, but I’ve realized that you get them everywhere. I once said acting wasn't really a man’s job, but I said that when my head was way up my own backside. Both acting and boxing are pretty tough worlds to live in, and I admit I still miss boxing. I did a lot of damage to my face and had my nose smashed five times and my cheekbone once. With the nose surgery, they just couldn’t seem to get it right. I remember one time after I’d had an operation on my nose I was stupid enough to invite a girl over to my house. I had bandages all over my face, and every time I tried to kiss her the pain was excruciating. After about 45 minutes of effort I said ‘Maybe you should just come back in a couple of weeks.’

Carre and I both p****d our relationship up the wall. We were kind of two lost souls who met each other and that was our connection. It was a real thunder-and-lightning thing, and even though I’d love another relationship like that, they don’t exactly grow on trees. I’d want a relationship better than the one we had, and how many times does that happens? It’s sad that it ended and I regret it. We were both broken people, but sometimes you just can’t put the pieces back together again. I still love her and I think she still loves me too, although I don’t think she’s in love with me. But now, I’m not sitting around and waiting for her anymore.

I cut my little finger off because I thought I didn’t want it. I was so angry about something and so I decided I didn’t need the end of the little finger on my left hand. I didn’t cut it off completely – it was still hanging on by a tendon – and an English friend, Gary, carefully carried the end of it as we went to the hospital to try and rectify the situation. It took the surgeon eight hours to sew it back on . I still can’t bend it properly.

I used to be an altar boy, but it only lasted a day. The teacher who was training us quit because we were such hard work. I was only ten at the time. I haven’t been to confession for about 5 years now, but when I did, I used to see my friend, Father Peter, in New York. We’d go down to his cellar, have a glass of wine and smoke a few cigarettes, and I’d confess my sins. They were usually to do with anger, like if someone had got in my way and I’d thought to myself, ‘Move out of my way, you fat cow!’ or stuff to do with women. Apart from the sex bit, I’d say I was a good Catholic.

When I get sent a script, I only read my part. What’s the point of reading everyone else’s? If I’m talking to you now, I have no idea what you’re going to say, so why anticipate it in a script ? It’s what helps keep my performances more organic, I think. I’m really lazy. Stormbreaker was just a fun thing to do, and playing [the baddie] Darrius wasn’t exactly something I needed to do research on.

I’d love to have kids, but I don’t want to repeat the cycle of abuse my parents started. I never knew my father and I’d hate to repeat that kind of cycle with my own children, because I’d always want to be there for them no matter what. My early life was a complete nightmare. My father left home and my mother then married a guy who never liked my brother Joe and me. I won’t talk about my stepfather, but to say we weren’t close is an understatement, and his being there destroyed everything for us. You end up repeating the patterns you grew up with so why would I want to inflict that on my own children. I would have had kids with Carre, but our relationship, broke up because of faults on both sides, and if I had children now I’d only want them if I was in a special relationship like that. If I ever do have children, there would be lots of issues of my childhood I’d want to address. In any case, I have my dogs and they’re like my children.

My mother couldn’t have messed things up more if she’d tried. Everyone wants to say they’ve got the best mum in the world, but sometimes it’s just not possible. My mum’s mum is 98 and a great lady who I’m close to and who saved my life when things were really dark. And she was smart. My own mother was a weak woman who didn’t protect me and Joe, and although I love her, I don’t like her. I didn’t realize how angry I was with her until I was in my thirties. I’m still trying not to be angry with her. I’d say I probably give more consideration to my dogs than I do to her.

I can’t believe I’m turning 50 this year, as I never thought I’d make it to 20. I’ve had a hard and painful life, but at least I’ve been lucky enough to get a second shot at things, so I’m not going to cry about it. Getting old is no picnic, though, let me tell you. People say that living is beautiful thing, but it’s not – it’s tough. I’m going to visit a friend of mine who’s 39 and he has cancer and it’s really painful to see him. You question everything about life when you see things like that.

I held my brother in my arms as he died of cancer. He’d fought cancer ever since he was 17 and he was in pain his entire life, and even though he was offered drugs to help keep him alive longer, he didn’t take them, as he didn’t want the quality of his life to deteriorate. There was nothing like holding my brother and looking at him until I watched his eyes go out. It was both the most upsetting and the most moving moment of my life. When he died [two years ago], I questioned my faith in God. I’d always believed He could intervene and stop him from dying, and He didn’t, it really shook me.

Joe and I had been so close. After our mum remarried, we moved to Liberty City in Miami, which was a pretty wild and violent place in the mid-Seventies, and from then on, it was up to me to look after Joe and protect him and take responsibility for him. People call me wild, but I was into sports and so that saved me in a way, but because Joe wasn’t so into it, he got sucked into drugs and crime that was rampant in the area. Keeping him out of that was a constant process.

We had nothing but each other, and even though he was in a lot of pain at the end, he was hanging on because he wanted to know that I was going to be OK. I told him I loved him and that I was going to be all right, and that it was OK if he had to go now because I was going to meet him later on. I light a candle for him everyday and will do it the rest of my life.

I used to own 13 motorcycles, but I sold them when I ran out of money. I couldn’t get work for about eight or nine years, so I’d sell a bike to get an extra 20,000 pounds or so to live on. All I have now are a Harley - Davidson and a Vespa.

I thought I’d be in therapy for six months, but nine years later, I’m still at it. I thought I’d only need a short time to change, but here I am still going once a week. When I lost my career, my wife, my house, I used to go up to three times a week for five years, because I had nothing else to do, but I wouldn’t say I had an addictive personality.

It’s taken me about 40 years, but I finally know what it is to be a man. I grew up in a neighbourhood where everyone was territorial and where people would always be getting into fights, and for a long time I believed that kind of macho behaviour was a strength when it was really a weakness. I was just as tough as the boys around me and that whole macho thing was embedded in me, but I needed it to survive my upbringing, and if I didn’t I’d still be in Miami doing God knows what with my life. I brought that anger and machismo to the table in Hollywood, and needless to say, it didn’t work there. People became afraid of me and all the doors eventually closed. I boxed as a kid and took it up again in my mid-thirties when I stopped acting, but I had to give it up when I failed the reflex test, the memory test, everything. The only thing that troubles me now is my equilibrium when I’m tired or drunk. I hated giving up boxing, although I thought I’d be able to get back into acting afterwards. As it turned out the doors stayed shut. But I’ve worked my way back slowly, and I’m trying not to be as vengeful as I was.

Did my parents let me down? I'm not sure I'd ever say that in a sentence. But then maybe all the events in my life have been about putting that whole thought into a sentence.'

same source

 

[Dora]

Motorcycle Boy Lives
By Andrew Vontz
MEAN Magazine
June/July 06'

You’re known for your integrity when it comes to choosing roles. What has been your favorite?
For many years it was Pope Of Greenwich Village. I just did a movie Harvey Weinstein produced, an Elmore Leonard piece, called Killshot. I had a wonderful ****ing experience with that. It was with the director of Shakespeare in Love, John Madden. I just loved it, the whole working process. John is a perfectionist, he’s very intelligent. He set a good work ethic with what he demanded of everybody. He was very tough. The kind of person you want to have at the helm. We were working very long hours and that mother****er just kept going and kept pushing us. You thought you’d have it and he’d say “One more take.” I thought, look at this ****. He’s got no life and he just wants the perfect movie. But I liked the way he worked really hard to achieve what he thought would be the best possible performance he could get from all the actors. I liked that about him. He was just driven.
What has been your least favorite experience making a movie?
I did a movie once where they paid me a lot of money and I shouldn’t have done it. Harley Davidson And The Marlboro Man It was a real piece of crap. One day the writer came up to me and told me how great the script was, I said “ This is a piece of ****, they paid me a lot of money, so **** off.” I think I stopped working shortly after that for five or six years.
That big of a bummer?
Yeah, it’s important for me right now to take jobs that have integrity, that I’m not doing it for the payday. I’m doing it because I believe in the piece and I can respect myself for whatever the effort is. That’s where I won’t get in any trouble or get tired of working.
How do you account for your massive popularity in France?
That happened a long time ago. It was something that I really appreciate. When I gave up acting for a while and wasn’t really doing it anymore, even they got disappointed with me.
How does your dog enhance your day to day life?
I wake up and she’s there. She’s very small so I can take her wherever I want and I’ve got my buddy with me. She’s been with me for 14 years. I told my agent, Look, if we were on a cruise ship and the 2 of you fell in, I’d dive in after Loki. I don’t even have to think about that.
You’ve been carrying Loki around for a long time. What does it feel like to have people like Paris Hilton biting your style?
First of all, I kinda don’t really recognize what that woman does. It’s kind of like a joke, you know. That’s sort of like asking me about a character at a Halloween party.
Do you think it’s degrading to dress your dog up in costumes?
No, not really. I think it’s ok. Some people do that who really love dogs. Then you get the jerk off’s who just want to have a picture with a dog, a cuddly animal. I thought that spoof Pink did on all those b*tches was pretty cool. Did you see that?
No, but I’ll just nod my head and say it’s awesome.
I thought it was pretty cool of her. Big ups to her.. The girls she was doing the spoof on, you could roll them up in a big ball…
And smoke them?
I don’t think I’d even want to smoke them.
Is Hollywood dirtier than boxing?
About the same.
What was the strangest thing that happened during the years you boxed in Japan?
I had to keep my weight down to make the weight limit. I walked into a place where nobody spoke any English and you were supposed to pick the fish you wanted out of the tank. I kept picking all of these colorful fish that were swimming around. I don’t know if they were supposed to be edible, but they cooked them up and they didn’t taste very good.
Maybe any tropical fish owners reading this will let go of any ideas they might have about eating their pets.
Exactly. I probably ate the owner’s tropical fish.
Do you continue to train for boxing?
The boxing thing for me is finished. I reached a level that I was ok with. Now I do Muay Thai fighting.
How often do you train for Muay Thai?
I train with 2 different people. A kid named Chris Riley who has a gym down here called The Bomb Squad. He shows me the basics because I’m starting from the ground up. And I work with a guy named Ray Sefo who’s a world champion heavy weight kick boxer, a K-1 fighter from new Zealand. We’ve become very close. I go to 2 different training sessions a day. It ends up being 2 hours a day. I go to 1 in the afternoon and 1 in the early evening. Because I’m using muscles I’ve never used before with my legs and throwing elbows and stuff like that, I’m pretty exhausted. I’m not used to using those particular moves.
That’s interesting that your doing Muay Thai now, because mixed martial arts has gotten huge the past few years. Are you a fan?
I’m a really big fan. I really love it. Chuck Liddell is fantastic. I’m a big fan of his. Carl Parisian is a terrific fighter; he’s a kid from west LA here. My buddy Ray Sefo who does K-1. They have Pride and the K-1. Bas Rutten is a good friend of mine.
Who is the toughest person you’ve ever met?
Ray Sefo. He’s dedicated, in shape, big and fast. He’s also one of the nicest guys you’d ever meet.
Would you ever consider stepping in the octagon for an MMA brawl?
Never. You’ve gotta be in your early 20’s to really be at the top of your game. I don’t like to lose and there’s no point in going in there and fighting a guy 25 years younger than me and getting my *** kicked. Which is what would happen to me. Boxers don’t fare very well. That’s one of the reasons I took up the Muay Thai. After all those years looking down on other boxing styles, I finally went WOW – a boxer can’t last in Pride or Ultimate Fighting. I like having more tools to use aside from just your hands. I see the point of it.
If you could face down anyone in Hollywood in a MMA fight, who would it be?
My mind wouldn’t even go that way. All of the guys I fought as a professional fighter I was always very close with them and had a lot of respect for them. It never descended into, like somebody I didn’t like or I hated. It was about respect and the sport itself. It’s not about being pissed off.
Have you ever put your fighting skills to use on the street?
That’s something I don’t want to get into.
What’s the most compassionate thing you’ve ever done for a stranger?
I adopt dogs that nobody else wants. Usually ones that they are going to put to sleep.
How many have you adopted?
6 or 7. Even the one that bit me in the face and gave me 2 stitches. I took him home. His name was Little Mickey, believe it or not. After he bit me I changed his name to Jaws.
If you were hiking, and you ran into George Bush on the trail, and there was no one else around, what would you say to him?
I’d say, George, your doing a hell of a job during very difficult times. More power to you. **** all them people who don’t like you.
Does that make you a popular man in Hollywood?
I really don’t give a ****.
What else don’t you give a **** about?
I don’t give a **** about much.
But you do love your dog?
I love all my dogs.
Equally?
No, I’m a little bit partial to Loki, but the rest of them are a hair behind

same source

 

[Dora]

The Interview - Arena talks to Mickey Rourke
Dec 9th, 06'

Michael Martin

He’s been on the canvas and out of the picture altogether, but the actor, ex-boxer and Arena’s original cover star is back, bigger, badder and - unbelievably - more mental than ever.....



Question : What time does Mickey Rourke show up for a photo shoot?

Answer : Whenever he wants to. It’s a rainy morning in a garage in Brooklyn, by the waterfront, and when Rourke eventually materialises he’s in jeans and a nice overcoat, shanking the rain out of his hair, trailed by a tough-looking assistant named Pinky and a small white dog - tiny legs, wiry white hair, sturdy body - called Jaws.

As for Rourke, the words physically intimidating somehow don’t quite cut it. He’s a huge, solid guy; so tightly coiled it’s like sitting across from a hurtling brick. His knuckles are tattooed with letters that are difficult to make out, but you can get the feeling that if you were to catch a glimpse of those words coming at you, they’d be among the last you processed on earth.

That’s the legend of Mickey Rourke: rough, uncompromising, erratic, possibly bat****. He was born in 1956 in Schenectady, New York, and was raised Catholic in Miami. A lifelong fan of motorcycles and boxing, he came to Hollywood after studying at the prestigious Less Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute in New York. Small parts in 1941 and Heaven’s Gate led to his performances of two genuinely iconic films of the Eighties: Diner and 9 ½ Weeks. There were other curious choices : after turning in performances of great integrity in Barfly and the IRA drama A Prayer For The Dying ( a project that got him banned from London for seven years), next came Harley Davidson And The Marlboro Man , a film as good as its title indicates. Then, Rourke launched a career as a professional boxer.

The fighting rearranged his face, and Rourke re-sorted his priorities. But he returned to Hollywood to find it largely disinterested, until his career-saving turn as knucklehead anti-hero Marv in last years Sin City.



This year, Rourke has starred in the well-received family action film Stormbreaker and the forthcoming (Out Of Sight) Leonard adaptation Killshot. At this moment, though, he’s talking with the make-up artist about what hair product he prefers, while his dog runs around the studio. “I can’t put the wrong **** on it, or it will just....hey Pinky, keep an eye on Jaws!”

In attempt to bond with the beast, hoping it will lead to trust from it’s owner, I take a step towards him. He bares his teeth and backs away, snarling venomously. He is the most intimidating breadbox-sized dog imaginable. “ Jaws,” scolds Pinky. “Is that nice?”



“They were going to put him to sleep”, says Rourke, scooping up his pal and settling into the chair. “I got him two days before. He was already in the execution chamber. He was very vicious, had been very badly abused. When I adopted him, he bit me in the mouth, gave me two stitches. Before, when you’d pick him up he’d freak out. Now you can even do this to him...”

Rourke strokes Jaws under the chin and Jaws maneuvers his head under the meaty paw that dominated those frames in Sin City. Dog and owner seem content . “Yeah”, Rourke tells the make-up artist. “I’ll have moisturizer. Thanks.”

This year is Arena’s 20th anniversary and you were the first cover in 1986.

Really? Wow.

{We show him the cover story} Do you remember the shoot?

[ laughs] Nope.

What do you remember about 1986 ?

Nothing. I remember I was living in New York, and it was just before my career ended. Who did the shoot?

Christopher Gstadler.

Oh that piece of crap. He used to be a friend. **** him.

In that interview you said, “I had a very naive picture of what acting is all about. I thought it really mattered what kind of actor you were. Nobody gives a ****. But I give a ****.”

I still feel exactly the same way. There’s a lot of stuff I said in 1986, before I went to therapy that I’m ashamed of. I was angry. But I think what you just read, I feel even more that way now. It’s [still] not really about acting. It’s about the publicity. It’s about what **** is going out with this one, what **** had a baby. In real life, people have babies all the time and it’s no big ****ing deal. But that’s what he movie business has turned into.

Are we going to see Marv return to Sin City 2?

If they pay me enough. Or do you want to call {it} ‘art’? [laughs]

Is their a script. Have they told you what they’d like you to do?

Sort of yes and no. They’re really going to have to show me that they want me back. They’re going to have to realize the success I had with it personally. They gotta show me the money, that’s all I’m talking about.

Some said you WERE that film.

You bet your *** I was.

So what did Sin City do for you?
I was out of the business for a long time - 13 years. I took six years off to go back to boxing, but I didn’t realize that if I stopped acting for six years, it would be hard to get work for seven more. By the time I left [Hollywood}, my reputation was so bad. I’d not handled things correctly. I was young and arrogant and immature and stupid. I didn’t take enough time to examine al the facets of the fact that making movies is a business. I didn’t want any part of it being a business, but that was me living in some sort of artistic bubble that doesn’t exist. I kind of had my head up my ***. When you’re out of work for13 years, you have to look in the mirror and say “It’s not them, I ****ed up. I put the gun to my head and pulled the trigger, they didn’t.”

Can you pinpoint when it started to turn?



It was the first time I took a job for money. For two, three, four years, I hadn’t worked, and there was nothing on my plate that I wanted to do and I was broke and I had bought this big ****ing house and so I did this stupid movie, Harley Davidson And The Marlboro Man, and I was ****in’ miserable doing it and I realized I had sold out. But there was a lot of other stuff going on too, with my career, my personal life, my life in general. **** was way out of control. So it was a slow burn of destruction that just blew up all of a sudden.



Would you consider Harley Davidson the worst movie you made?

I’ve made some really bad movies - I don’t even want to remind myself that I made them. I just worked on a movie [Killshot] with a wonderful ****ing director from Canada, John Madden. It’s as good as I’ve felt about making a movie in 15 years. Madden’s, like, driven. He’s a perfectionist. He can do 80 takes and he makes it better and better every time. And that’s what I like. I like that he cares so much that he drives himself - he turns purple.

About Killshot - are you an Elmore Leonard fan?

To a degree. I met him. I’m a ****ing Madden fan. I’ve also got to give credit to {producer} Harvey Weinstien. Harvey knows my old reputation, and Harvey putting me in these movies means a lot to me. Because Harvey’s a hard-***. He either likes you, or he doesn’t give you the ****in’ time of day. My kind of guy. Old-school real tough mother****er. If I were in his business, I would be as ruthless as him. But there’s also a soft spot to Harvey. He really cares. You can see through the hard veneer.

What about Stormbreaker?

Stormbreaker was a money job, to be honest with you. I went because I love London, I want to go to London, and it was a role I thought I could pull off. It was “Let’s go over there and get away with this.”

How do you choose a role these days?

Usually, if it’s got entrance and exits and it has layers that challenge you. I’ve got a big hang-up about working with actors I don’t like. I’ve turned down tons of **** because I don’t like the company. When I don’t like someone, I really ****in’ don’t like them, and when Id don’t want to work with somebody, I really don’t want to work with them. [In the past] I’ve had to compromise and do some roles like that, but as of recently, I haven’t. I talk with my therapist, who I really need, and he goes, we’re making the same mistakes again. Why do you hate this person? Why do you think that person is such a bad actor?” For years, I was embarrassed to admit that I even had a therapist. He saved my ****in’ life and my career. I don’t what Tom Cruise says about therapy. **** him. ****. **** therapists. Let the Scientologists go ****in’ live on a planet of their own.

Are there any parts you’ve turned down that you regret?

Oh Yeah. I’m not telling you which ones though.


Did you feel that when you were starting out you weren’t’ taken seriously because of your looks? Your friend Johnny Depp says he wasn’t.
Well, Johnny was really pretty. He’s better looking than most women. But he’s also a fine actor, he’s not just a guy with a pretty face who can’t act. The thing about Johnny is that he goes against his looks. He challenges himself to make interesting choices and I respect that. Some of these work and you see it right away. He has the balls to hang his ball over the fence.


Do you regret the boxing?

When I was amateur, I didn’t turn pro because I got hurt. I always felt ashamed that I didn’t have the guts to continue with something that’s really hard. But, I’m happy with the fact that I turned professional at 33 years old, when most careers are over. I had 14 fights - 12 wins and 2 draws. I got hurt a lot and paid the price with operations on my nose, which were several. My timing was off. I regret it on one hand because my day had come and gone as a fighter, but I’m at peace now. It was hard. People can say what hey want, but I got to fight all over the word, and it gave me focus and concentration. When that bell rings, you can’t go, “Hold on, I need another take,” or “Can you fix my make-up?” When that ****in’ bell rings, you better be right there, because that guy want to rip you a new *******.



How badly were you injured?

I’ve had several nose operations to repair damage in my cartilage; I had my cheekbone reconstructed when I shattered that. I had about three or four concussions. There were a lot of injuries.

Have you had surgery purely for cosmetic reasons?

No, just those things I mentioned, that’s pretty common knowledge.

Who’s your pick of the new acting talent?

I really enjoyed working with Rosario Dawson. She’s really pretty and such a hard-working actress. Same thing with Keira Knightley. I’ve worked with some of these new kids and I’ve been very impressed with them.

Which of their qualities impress you most?

I was sitting in the make-up chair, and I was looking over a Keira who is 23 years old or whatever [she’s actually 21], and I thought, “God, look how professional she is, “She’s on time, she’s not late, she looks really great. I wasn’t even working when I was 23. I was when I was 28, but I was a ****ing mess. I wasn’t professional at all. And I looked at her and wished that even when I was in my 30's I could have been more like that.

What has time taught you about women?

It’s been a humbling experience. Very painful. You can only do it by yourself, and it doesn’t take months, it takes years. I programmed myself to be a certain way - to live on the street. Something out of the Dark Ages. That changed in time. You can be physically strong and that can be a tremendous weakness. I learned it’s OK to let go, and count to 10.

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