If Mickey Rourke wins the Best Actor Oscar for Darren Aronofsky's festi-buzzy The Wrestler, it will be the ultimate Hollywood comeback story. And we're a sucker for a good redemption tale, it's so American. Rourke's been at the top when he was Prince of Greenwich Village, and he's been at rock bottom. This recent interview with Entertainment Weekly shows just how far down rock bottom is on the Hollywood food chain:
"When Rourke chose to give up boxing in 1995 rather than run the risk of suffering permanent brain damage, he found himself back at the bottom. His pricey house had been repossessed, his marriage was in ashes, and his movie prospects were bleaker than ever. He'd gone from costarring with De Niro to sharing the screen with the likes of Dennis Rodman and Jean-Claude Van Damme. By the end of the '90s, Rourke even had to sell off his motorcycles, one by one. 'Every time I would go broke, I would sell another motorcycle to get me by for about six months,' he says. 'And then I got down to one motorcycle, and I called a friend at a construction company and I said, 'Can you get me a job out in the Valley where people won't know me? He thought I was kidding and hung up the phone. I couldn't even get that!' For the past few years, Rourke says that he even relied on handouts from friends, including one who gave him $200 a week so he could eat. 'Two hundred bucks will last you at McDonald's,' he says."
We wish Rourke the best of luck in his Oscar-worthy quest. More here.
(image via darrenaronofsky.blogspot)
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