When
busy state of his career, the gritty actor who made a remarkable
comeback two years ago with “The Wrestler” says he’s fortunate.
“I feel very grateful to have that opportunity,” he
says. “I just think if you persevere and you work hard enough and you
don’t fade away, you can get lucky.”
Rourke’s cinematic renaissance continues to move
along nicely with his current role in “Iron Man 2,” which opens Friday.
It’s the much-anticipated sequel to the 2008 summer box-office
sensation that was popular with superhero fans and newcomers alike,
earning
Although he’s not really a comic book guy, Rourke
says he liked the first “Iron Man” and was drawn to the sequel by the
opportunity to work with
Rourke credits Downey and Favreau with lobbying for
him to be in the movie and convincing Marvel Comics that it would be a
good idea.
“Pretty much when I got the part, I felt very
obligated to do the best job I could, because of the way those guys
were campaigning for me,” he says in a no-nonsense voice, speaking by
phone from
“Iron Man 2” follows the latest adventures of Downey’s character, wealthy and debonair industrialist
who announced to the world in “Iron Man” that he was the superhero in
the flying suit of armor. Now Stark is dealing with the repercussions
of his celebrity and being pressured by the government to turn over his
technology.
This time, the cast includes
Rourke plays Stark’s nemesis
in the trailers for the movie, sports long hair and tattoos and looks
like a stylish, worthy villain.
The actor credits Favreau with allowing him to bring his ideas about creating the character to the table.
“I made some choices as an actor that he went to the
Marvel people and … had to convince them that I wasn’t out of my
mind,” he says.
Rourke visited a Russian prison to familiarize
himself with the culture and protocol and learn about the prisoners’
elaborate tattoos.
“There was one particular fellow that actually, a
few days after I went to the prison, he came to my hotel room with some
people. He undressed and he showed me some different tattoos. His whole
body was covered from his toes to the back of his neck.”
He studied the Russian language for about three
months, spending two or three hours a day on it, a task he calls
“really hard work.” He says his Russian girlfriend made fun of his
accent. “I’ve met her parents and I’m the only one that doesn’t
understand what they’re talking about,” he says with amusement.
There also were months of physical training to
prepare for the heavy gear he wears in the film. When told that it
sounds like he took preparing for the role seriously, Rourke replies,
“I take everything serious.”
At the start of his career, Rourke gave dazzling performances in films like “Diner” in 1982 and “The Pope of
in 1984. But he went through some lean years in which he developed a
reputation for being difficult and spent time boxing before “The
Wrestler” brought him back to prominence.
“I ruined that myself,” Rourke told the
last year, talking about the derailing of his initial promise. “I
wasn’t ready at that time. There were some broken pieces I didn’t know
how to fix that made me behave a certain way. I wasn’t knowledgeable
enough for many, many years to understand or want to accept the fact
that the movie business was political and that it’s a business.”
Today, Rourke sounds more tolerant of what’s
expected of movie stars. Although he doesn’t necessarily like promoting
films by talking about his work, “I understand now that it’s part of
the job.”
Some fans felt they were seeing the real Rourke in
“The Wrestler,” a movie in which he gives a compelling, sympathetic
performance as a pro wrestling star whose glory is faded.
“I guess there were a lot of parallels that I drew
on or you could easily compare,” Rourke says. “‘The Wrestler,’ because
of the comparisons perhaps on a lot of different levels, it wasn’t the
most fun movie to do. It’s also a movie that I don’t particularly care
for watching. Some of it is too close to the bone.”
“The Wrestler” earned him an Oscar nomination for
best actor and spurred the boom times he’s experiencing now. He’s
taking a break from filming “Immortals,” a Greek mythology epic, to
promote “Iron Man 2.” He says he plans to do a couple of projects with
director
He just finished a “very weird, kind of romantic, kind of strange movie” called “Passion Play” with
And he says he’ll star in a movie about
Rourke and Khan share an affection for dogs (the actor thanked his dogs when he won a Golden Globe last year).
Rourke goes on to describe a scene where Khan tells his son to unchain the dogs before a battle and let them go.
“Usually the dogs died in the battle and he didn’t want his dogs to die,” he says. “And I thought, oh I like that part.”
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