Despite the glut of trademark Oscar stories that usually emanate from the Hollywood publicity machine at this time of year, it is the parallel stories of two washed up enigmas that continue to grab headlines in the 2009 Oscar race. Mickey Rourke's bravura turn as Randy 'The Ram' Robinson in Darren Aronofsky's superb film The Wrestler, has turned heads not only for Rourke's on-screen performance, but also for its neat reflection of his own off-screen tale of rags to riches to rags and back again.
Rourke's Early Career: From the Boxing Ring to the Silver Screen
Heavily involved in amateur boxing during his teens, a series of concussions saw doctors recommend that Rourke take a break. Like the rude awakening delivered to his character in The Wrestler, Rourke was forced to reassess his life. Setting his sights on acting, he enrolled at New York's prestigious Actors Studio, and shot to fame in the early 1980s via a series of dark urban noirs including Body Heat, Rumble Fish and The Pope of Greenwich Village.
With his Hollywood stocks rising rapidly, itchy feet set in for Rourke and the mid-1980s gave way to a series of mistakes, bad decisions and critical and commercial failures that would continue for at least a decade. Amid on-set bust-ups and brushes with the law, Rourke reportedly turned down roles in The Untouchables, Rain Man and Pulp Fiction, amongst others, focussing instead on largely forgettable films like Desperate Hours and Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man. And the turmoil wasn't restricted to his career either, his rocky second marriage, to Wild Orchid co-star Carré Otis, ended in divorce in 1998.
That same year, Rourke scripted and starred in Homeboy. The tale of a struggling, self-destructive boxer, its influence on Rourke's performance in The Wrestler is clear. Before long, Rourke had turned his back on Hollywood, announcing his decision to become a professional boxer in 1991. Embarking on an undefeated run of eight fights over four years, and sustaining countless injuries, Rourke announced his retirement in 1995.
On The Comeback Trail
Returning to acting, Rourke has spent much of the last decade making straight to video B-movies or taking brief roles under the auspicious direction of Francis Ford Coppola, Vincent Gallo, Sean Penn and Robert Rodriguez. Likewise, Rourke's character in The Wrestler, once the toast of professional wrestling, is now forced into a meagre existence on the very fringes of the wrestling circuit. Unlike The Ram, however, who is left crippled after years of no-holds-barred wrestling, it seems Rourke may finally be coming back into his own, emerging from years in the relative wilderness to build upon a substantial, award winning role in Sin City and the runaway success of The Wrestler.
Of course, Hollywood tales never end that comfortably. The most recent twist in The Wrestler tale is enough to make any Hollywood publicist proud, if only it wasn't so earnestly and unmistakably Rourkian. On the red carpet at the Screen Actors Guild awards, Rourke announced that he was stepping into the ring once again, planning to fight Chris Jericho at WrestleMania XXV in April. Undoubtedly, if elements of Rourke's performance in The Wrestler can be read as art imitating life, it is no surprise that life is now imitating art imitating life. With any other Hollywood actor, this could only be interpreted as a crude and foolhardy publicity stunt, yet Rourke's earlier stint as a professional boxer proves that he is no stranger to stepping off the screen and into the ring, and once again demonstrates his determination to follow the path least trodden.
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