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The Comeback Man

In his new film "The Wrestler," Irish American actor Mickey Rourke's stunning return to form after a decade of excess and heartbreak is as unexpected as it is sweet. CAHIR O'DOHERTY talks to the recently reformed wild man of Hollywood about his new flick, which many movie critics are calling the film of the year.

By
CAHIR O'DOHERTY,
IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Tuesday, March 10, 2009, 4:07 PM
Updated Thursday, July 23, 2009, 6:09 PM

 

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Meeting Mickey Rourke, 52, feels more like meeting a rock star than an actor. One thing's for certain, he doesn't disappoint.

Flanked by two female assistants and dressed in an eye-catching striped jacket with a dapper silk handkerchief exploding from his breast pocket during a recent press day in New York to promote his stunning comeback film "The Wrestler," Rourke doesn't just enter a room. He arrives.

The aging rock star aura is justified. Rourke's recorded tracks with David Bowie, he's a friend of Bruce Springsteen (who provides the title track for "The Wrestler") and he's partied with the notorious murdered rap star Tupac Shakur.

But this cold December morning in New York City the comeback kid has a bad case of the jitters.

"I'm just nervous, man," he tells the Irish Voice. "I've been out in the wilderness for a long time and I don't want to screw this up, you know?"

This unmistakable humility is the key to his character. Rourke hails from a working class Irish American family in Schenectady, New York and he's the kind of man who calls it like he sees it, and because of that it's impossible not to warm to him immediately.

"Most people are full of s***," "The Wrestler" director Darren Aronofsky says. "Mickey's not like that. The audience instinctively gets that he isn't. An actor with that quality is very hard to find."

And here's another surprise about Rourke in person you don't expect - his sensitivity and shyness are obvious.

The Irishness of Rourke's temper, his attitudes and his issues with authority figures are unmistakable, too.

According to his close friends, with Mickey Rourke once you're in you're in for life, but if you're out there won't be any second chances.

And he's not afraid to let you know it in pretty colorful language. This is the man who memorably called Tom Cruise the f-word for attacking psychiatry and the actress Brooke Shields.

Said Rourke, "My therapist saved my f***ing life and my career. I don't care what Tom Cruise says about therapy. F*** him. Picking on poor Brooke Shields. People need medicine and they need therapists. Let the Scientologists go f***ing live on a planet of their own."

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