'Living for 12 years in disgrace with no money isn't easy': Mickey Rourke on the fight of his life
By
Chris Sullivan
Last updated at 10:00 PM on 07th November 2009
How do you come back as one of Hollywood's biggest stars when you've destroyed your career? Just ask Mickey Rourke
'I'd rather be dead than mellow': Hollywood hellraiser Mickey Rourke, 57, hasn't lost his wild streak
Only a few years ago, no one would have wagered that Mickey Rourke would ever again star in a movie. Yet not only did he headline as Randy 'The Ram' Robinson in The Wrestler; he triumphed by winning a Bafta, a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination.
He was born Phillip Andre Rourke in Schenectady, New York in 1952. After a career as an amateur boxer, he studied acting and became one of Hollywood's biggest names in the Eighties, starring in films such as Rumble Fish, Angel Heart and 9˝ Weeks. He couldn't put a foot wrong - then suddenly he couldn't put a foot right. He turned down lead roles in Rain Man, Platoon and The Untouchables, and after a series of awful movie choices lost all credibility.
In 1991, aged 38, he became a professional boxer and fought as a light heavyweight. He retired in 1995, undefeated. Subsequently, he slugged his way back up the acting ladder, but after reconstructive facial surgery he was almost unrecognisable.
Now 57, he has been married twice, to actresses Debra Feuer and Carré Otis, and is now single. He lives in New York with his four pet chihuahuas.
My dogs really helped me get through the dark times.
I lost everything at the same time - my wife, my career, my house, my credibility - and all I had left was the dogs plus just two or three people who stuck with me. I was living under the mat - being known and then being known for being out of work, for having fallen from grace. You go and buy a pack of smokes and people say, 'Hey, didn't you used to be that actor?' So it was a very shameful place, and the dogs (he has owned eight chihuahuas) were my friends. A lot of people you meet out there turn their backs on you once you're down, but the dogs don't. The one dog I loved, Loki, died last year, and she is deeply missed but with me in spirit.
I'd rather be dead than mellow.
You might as well take me out the back and shoot me in the head before I'm going to be mellow.
This is the second act of my life.
The first act was crazy, but I've learnt from it. If you've got the guts and the desire and the talent, the first time around is easy. The second time around, it's murder. How many guys make it round the second bend?
'I knew I wasn't going to win the Oscar for The Wrestler before I even got there. I knew my reputation would precede me': Mickey on his comeback role as 'The Ram'
While I was making the best movies, such as Angel Heart, I was out of control.
I didn't think the party was going to end. The motorcycles, the nightlife, the women - it's all... blinding. You can have anything you want. You don't think that it's going to end, and when it does it's really scary. I surrounded myself with a bunch of retards and idiots - guys from the street, goo fballs and villains, and they brought me down. I don't surround myself with them any more.
I never had much respect for money and when you spend it like I did it soon goes.
I bought six Cadillacs with cash and gave them away. In 1986 I paid $97,000 for a car that had belonged to the Shah of Iran. It had been his desert car and was bulletproof, so it was really heavy and couldn't even make it up to my house in the Hollywood Hills. Then one day the hydraulic windows stopped working, so I sold it for $20,000. I owned it for two months and drove it five times. That's about $20,000 a drive.
To be wealthy has never been a goal of mine.
You can only spend so much and you cannot take it with you, so for me leaving a good body of work is more important. I live just within my means and have a good time. All I've ever wanted to do is have a great time and deal with great people. I'm only as rich as my next film.
Mickey was one of Hollywood's biggest names in the Eighties starring in films like Rumble Fish and 9˝ Weeks (above with
Kim Basinger)
Living for ten to 12 years with no money and in disgrace wasn't easy.
I'm a very proud man, and being in LA, which is a town built on envy, you're only as good as your last film. Nobody knew just how broke I was. I was paying $500 a month for a one-room apartment with a yard for my dogs. A friend used to give me a couple of hundred dollars a month just to feed myself. I'd be calling up my ex-wife and crying like a baby.
I don't want to live with an actress again, no matter how they look.
I'm working opposite Megan Fox and Eva Green next, and I'm certainly not complaining. But I'll tell you, once bitten...
I went back into the boxing ring because of shame.
I started boxing at 12 or 13, was an amateur for seven years and then I stopped. I had 142 amateur fights and lost three. When I went back to boxing I trained like crazy. I don't regret it, but it was a bad time and it was very destructive. I had tunnel vision (about boxing) because I didn't want to lose. I was three fights away from a world-title fight and I'll never know what would have happened. I'd turned 40 and was fighting guys 20 years younger.
During my troubles I found a great shrink who sorted me out.
He made me see the strength and machismo I carried with me was a way I'd found to deal with a feeling of abandonment and shame. A lot of it began when I was a little boy. I didn't know why my father abandoned me. I didn't know why my mother married a brutal cop and let things happen to me and my little brother Joey. But it all comes out eventually. With me it was my belligerence. I blamed everyone in Hollywood and I made him or her into this authority figure that had beaten me with a stick.
'All I ever wanted to do is have a great time and deal with great people. I'm only as rich as my next film'
A lot of those who let you down are those who seemed the closest to you.
They're the ones running out of your house with the silver when it all goes wrong, and when they jump ship that hurts. There are some people who stuck with me: Sly Stallone has always been a good friend to me. Stevie Jones (of the Sex Pistols) - he's a good man. Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Joe Strummer - God rest his soul - from the Clash: they were my guys. And we had a great time. I just did a few days with Jason Statham on Sly's new film and he's become a good friend.
Where I come from, being a hard man is being able to take a good beating and then get back up again and carry on fighting.
I give sport a lot of credit. Sport has always taught me that the game isn't over until the final minute and it ain't over till it's over. I still work out most days. When I do it I go full blast five or six days a week, two to three hours a day. I enjoy it. It's therapeutic for me.
I knew I wasn't going to win the Oscar for The Wrestler before I even got there.
I knew my reputation would precede me. It's voted for by people from the movie business and in the past I've hacked them all off . I was good at that - it came easily to me. I stupidly said acting wasn't a job for a real man. I threatened producers, raged at directors, forgot my agent's name. I really burned my bridges. I'd love to have an Oscar, but don't you worry - I'll get mine. If I get the right part and set my mind to it, I will get one.
Mickey Rourke - 'Living for 12 years in disgrace with no money isn't easy'
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