1982, MICKEY ROURKE in his breakout role in Barry Levinson’s directorial debut “Diner”
Screen acting is all about subtlety. In a play, performed on the stage, an actor has to project and indicate emotions to a large audience. In screen acting, the camera is a microscope that can pick up every nuance of an actor’s face. An actor thinks the thought and the camera picks it up. Certain actors on screen look as if they came out of a glamorized fashion commercial. Other actors look as if they have lived a full life and sometimes a hard life. Watching them on screen is less about performance and more about an authentic and unique reality that is only lived through them. Robert Mitchum was in a chain gang, Steve McQueen was a drifter and worked on an oil rig, and Montgomery Clift hid his sexuality and faced a horrific car accident at the height of his career.
How does Mickey Rourke fit into that spectrum? When Mickey Rourke appears on screen, he personifies a gritty hard lived reality that can not be acted. It has to be lived. Hikari Takano’s interview with the actor back in 1999 conveys someone who finally came to terms with where he grew up and an unflinching desire to rebuild his acting career with integrity. Liberty City is one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Miami, Florida. Miami is known too well for its beautified beaches and less for its immense poverty and crime located far west of Miami Beach and Interstate-95. Acting in a stage play at the University of Miami inspired him to find a way out of his circumstances. Mickey Rourke left that tough environment and landed in New York City. He worked odd jobs alongside longshoremen and was briefly a bouncer at nightclubs. He was only 19 or 20 at the time. He was accepted into The Actor’s Studio at its height. Lee Strasberg and Elia Kazan were still running the studio and the audition process was tougher than ever. Harvey Keitel must have auditioned more than a dozen times before being accepted to the studio around the same time as Mickey. After a few years of hard knocks, Mickey Rourke went from one small film role to another. He rose to notoriety with supporting turns in films like Steven Spielberg’s “1941”, Lawrence Kasdan’s “Body Heat”, and Michael Cimino’s “Heaven’s Gate”. His break out role came in 1982 with Barry Levinson’s “Diner” for which he received the National Society of Film Critics award for “Best Supporting Actor”.
At a point in the 1980s, Mickey Rourke was offered leads in such landmark films as, “Rain Man”, “The Big Chill, and countless others. He did cement nuanced and one of a kind leading man performances as a hustler in “The Pope of Greenwich Village”, a conflicted police office in “Year of the Dragon”, an alcoholic writer in “Barfly”, and a private investigator confronting the supernatural in “Angel Heart”. Not to mention memorable turns as Matt Dillon’s brother in Francis Coppola’s “Rumble Fish” and a troubled stock broker opposite Kim Basinger in “9 and 1/2 Weeks”.
The 1990s brought about one last collaboration with Michael Cimino in a remake of the Humphrey Bogart vehicle “Desperate Hours” playing the Bogart role of an escaped criminal terrorizing a family to dodge the law. Mickey Rourke periodically left film acting for most of the 1990s to pursue a career as a boxer. Did he fall out of love with acting and the movie business?
As you listen to Hikari Takano’s interview, keep in mind that this is almost 10 years before his Oscar nominated role in “The Wrestler” in 2008. Did the business turn on Mickey or did Mickey turn on the business? Mickey Rourke is one of the most talented actors to ever appear in films. Directors like Francis Coppola and Sean Penn gave Mickey opportunities to shine in the late 1990s and early 2000s with brief roles as a corrupt attorney in “The Rainmaker” opposite Matt Damon and a heartbreaking scene as a grieving father opposite Jack Nicholson in “The Pledge”. Mickey Rourke is still here and with roles like the upcoming “Sin City” sequel and the dramedy “Ashby”, we can look forward to a new chapter in Mickey Rourke’s career. For more perspective on Mickey Rourke’s life, career, and his journey overcoming personal struggle, check out the actor’s interview with journalist Hikari Takano.
Mickey Rourke Audio Interview with Hikari Takano
Note: I discovered Hikari Takano’s interviews a few years ago upon stumbling onto his website. Along with Mickey Rourke, he has audio and video interviews with David O. Russell, Spike Jonze, Jon Voight, Dennis Hopper, Billy Bob Thornton, Joel Schumacher, Roland Joffe, Chris Weitz, Sydney Pollack, Jay Mohr, and so many more. I encourage everyone to explore his site and enjoy in-depth conversations with some of the most talented actors and filmmakers.
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