Mickey Rourke: The Reality Behind His Role on The Wrestler

Mickey Rourke is back in the headlines, reminding us of a talent that is as volatile as it is undeniable. But to truly understand the man, one must look back at the moment art imitated life too closely. I was there as an Associate Producer on the movie, The Wrestler, witnessing a transformation that was raw, painful, and dangerously real. While the public sees the headlines, I saw the quiet moments on the road and on set where the line between Mickey Rourke and Randy "The Ram" Robinson ceased to exist. What happened behind the scenes wasn’t just acting. It was a mirror he eventually couldn’t bear to look into.

The Raw Genius That Defined Mickey Rourke’s Career

I have always been a fan of Mickey Rourke. An always intriguing stew of raw, sexy, tough, and vulnerable, Rourke was a student at the noted Actors’ Studio in New York, which legendary director Elia Kazan founded.

Kazan is reported to have stated that the young Rourke was the “best audition in thirty years.”

Interestingly, Kazan directed Marlon Brando as Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront, and the character’s similarities with Randy the Ram are evident. Brando’s immortal line, "I coulda been a contender. I could’ve been somebody instead of a bum, which is what I am…" is quite reminiscent of Randy “The Ram Robinson’s heart-wrenching "I’m just a broken-down piece of meat. And I don’t want you to hate me…" humbling of himself to his daughter in The Wrestler.

Rourke’s smoldering talent was evident early on as his star exploded in the 1980s. He appeared in a plethora of major releases, hits, and acclaimed performances. He made waves in Body Heat, Diner, Rumble Fish, The Pope of Greenwich Village, 9 ½ Weeks, Barfly, Year of the Dragon, Angel Heart, and the boxing film Homeboy, in which Rourke, an amateur and professional boxer, wrote and starred.

Noted director Adrian Lyne (Flashdance, 9 ½ Weeks) said that had Rourke died after Angel Heart, he would have become a bigger phenomenon than James Dean.

While Rourke’s star waned in the 1990s and he even returned to boxing, his filmography remains stellar.

And then there was his memorable comeback in The Wrestler.

Inside the Gritty Research Trips for The Wrestler with Mickey Rourke

As a professional wrestling agent, I have had the honor of being on the road with such legends and friends as Nikolai Volkoff, Lanny Poffo, Jimmy and Johnny Valiant, The Iron Sheik, Nicole Bass, Lou Albano, and innumerable others.

Because of my connections in the wrestling world, I was hired as an Associate Producer on The Wrestler. I was responsible for everything wrestling-related on the film, with Darren Aronofsky rightfully demanding not only the grittiness he is known for in his own amazing body of work but also authenticity.

For six months before the 35-day shoot of The Wrestler, I took Darren, Executive Producer Scott Franklin, Screenwriter Robert Siegel, and Mickey Rourke, among others, to a variety of indie wrestling matches and other related industry events. Darren, a perfectionist, worked this “research” into his budget and schedule, wanting the film to ring true, which it ultimately did.

They would pick the brains of such East Coast mainstays as Nikolai, Johnny Valiant, the gruff but lovable King Kong Bundy, hardcore wrestler Lowlife Louie Ramos, among innumerable others. They are all unsung heroes of the film.

All the while, Mickey was being trained by the revered Afa "The Wild Samoan" and his top-notch crew, and he also spent quality time with Greg "The Hammer" Valentine. You can see a lot of Greg’s influences in the Randy "The Ram" Robinson character.

One weekend, I took the team to a wrestling convention in New Jersey. The lineup was WWE Hall of Fame-level notable: Fabulous Moolah and Mae Young, Superfly Jimmy Snuka, Johnny V, legendary manager Lou Albano, King Kong Bundy, the Iron Sheik, and more.

Only the Iron Sheik’s head was down on the table, out like a light. Why? Because the place was a graveyard.

I chronicle the grim event in my book, Wrestling Rings, Blackboards, and Movie Sets:

“Where is everybody?” Darren whispered to me repeatedly, as if embarrassed for them. The turnout was bleak.

“It’s like this a lot, Darren,” I said, shaking my head glumly.

I could see screenwriter extraordinaire Rob Siegel soaking it all in and making mental notes. The math was simple enough.

There were more wrestlers and vendors than there were fans.

Johnny Valiant was doing his one-man show in front of a minuscule crowd, and I thought Darren and crew might at least get a laugh out of that and salvage the day, but after briefly chatting with the stars- The Iron Sheik, the snoozing exception, he said to me abruptly, “I gotta go…

And we did.

The whole fiasco bothered him. The fans had forgotten his ’80s wrestling heroes.

It was a portrait of how lonely it can be after the glory.

I was tasked with checking the various incarnations of the screenplay for authenticity regarding the wrestling content, and the next thing I knew, Siegel added the tragic autograph scene.

The Unscripted Reality of Filming with Mickey Rourke

Jump to the filming of said autograph scene.

I helped with the set design; much of the wrestling merchandise on the table had been provided by me. Walking in, I immediately noted it was all too tidy and antiseptic-looking and told Darren it should have a more cluttered look, with almost every inch of the table covered in merch.

Hey, I had done enough conventions over the years as an agent and vendor with "the boys" to know just how it should feel.

The cast was already in place. The only actual wrestlers were Johnny Valiant and 800-pound Black Sumo Manny Yarborough of early UFC fame. The rest were actors playing beaten-down-looking grapplers. I had implored Darren for months prior to bringing in Albano, Nikolai, Bundy et al, but he wavered on it.

Finally, he made his decision and explained it succinctly. "I don’t want Mickey to look like a ‘What’s wrong with this picture.’"

It made sense to me.

Once ready, I settled in for another long day of shooting, but was in for the surprise of my life, which I also chronicle in my book:

On set, I was chatting with the always amiable Rob (Siegel), but once the shooting started, an immediate feeling of intensity fell over the room. But out of nowhere, Darren suddenly gets this smirk, as if he’d just gotten a lightbulb in a cartoon, waves me over, and says, “Evan, come here…”

I had no idea what he was about to ask of me.

“I want you to walk over to each table, chat with all of the wrestlers. Go over to Mickey last. Ask him for an autograph and a Polaroid.”

Shocked by my sudden, totally unexpected thrust into acting and staring at the script that was thrown in my face that read merely “Thank you” for the autograph, my brain was racing.

“What am I going to say?”

Then, out of left field, Mickey walks over, calmly whispers in my ear, “Just improv it.”

I think he thought I was an actor.

With no makeup, the same clothes I had worn off the street, and not much time to think this thing out, I heard what seemed like a distant call for “ACTION!”

At first, it was hard not to notice the giant cameras in my face and what at least felt like a hundred people watching me. But I did exactly what Darren said, walking over to the various extras, then to Manny. Now Manny was a friend who had been up to our radio show at WBAI-FM on several occasions. So just seeing him calmed me. “Hey, good to see you…” And it was. It no longer felt like acting.

When I finally made my way over to Mickey, I had decided to say what I would to any childhood wrestling hero.

“I loved you as a kid. I saw you at the Garden. Can I have your autograph?”

But he threw me for a loop when he responded.

“What’s your name?”

I very briefly pondered the answer to that oh-so-complicated question and responded with what made the most sense to me.

“Evan.”

And it dawned on me just how surreal this was. I was playing myself in a fictional movie.

“How do you spell it?”

“E…v…a…n,” I responded.

And there it was. Etched forever on film. With an Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner in an all-time great performance.

After the shot was in the can, Darren ran over to me, pounding me on the chest, exclaiming for all to hear, "That was great! That was great!"

It may have been the proudest moment of my life.

Johnny Valiant walked over to me, exclaiming, "You know your hand was shaking." Hey, the day before, I had been standing in front of my Adult ESL class teaching. This was quite the leap.

But I’ll be forever grateful to Mickey Rourke for his calming voice- "Just improv it," as if acting in front of a throng of people with all eyes on you is the easiest thing in the world to do.

And with Mickey in his element, in control, "in the zone," he made it just that.

An eternal thank you, Sir.

Mickey Rourke’s Reaction to Extreme Wrestling

Another wild Mickey Rourke memory was our attending CZW’s annual extreme event, Cage of Death, in South Philly.

In my book, I describe it as such:

Ambience-wise, the Alhambra Arena was a notch above a barn. Packed with mostly young white, bloodthirsty males, they knew just what they were there for: insane spots and the carnage they resulted in.

No object or weapon was too outlandish, painful, or dangerous for the eight participants to inflict on themselves. Inside and outside the cage were goodies like barbed wire, wooden boards, a scaffold, tables, chairs, ladders, sheets of glass, salt, and lemon juice to pour into open wounds.

The boys had no qualms about flinging themselves off the top of the large cage through exploding panes of glass and then writhing about in the shattered glass. Oozing crimson red everywhere a human being could, one extreme spot led to the next and the next. It was like they were trying to outdo each other.

Following the match, our crew was welcomed backstage, where I quietly watched the result of the previous carnage.

There, one wrestler after another sat battered and with open wounds, while the next waited his turn to be stitched up. The medical team picked pieces of glass from the contestants’ backs and other body parts.

It reminded me of Hawkeye and Trapper John on M.A.S.H. I had been dropped into Hell.

The punchline to the story?

After it was all over, I approached Mickey, curious about his reaction to the proceedings. Here was a guy accustomed to black tie, elegant Oscar and Golden Globe events, and ever so glamorous film festivals around the world, but I had taken him to a gory entertainment as far removed from Hollywood glitz and glamour as anyone could possibly imagine.

Not knowing what to expect, I begged the question, asking a simple, "What did you think?"

He looked at me, a big smile crossed his face, and he responded, "It was ****ing wild."

Hey, I guess I’ve “done good."

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A Magic Mickey Rourke Moment: The Moment We Knew

Having worked off and on for seven years on The Wrestler, we were finally being screened closing night at the prestigious world-class New York Film Festival.

It was at gorgeous Lincoln Center. There were 2,300 people at $40 a ticket. Sold out.

The film’s buzz was already percolating, first and foremost, due to Mickey’s fantastic performance and "comeback."

As I looked about the massive venue, I soaked it all in. You could feel the excitement and anticipation in the air as we anxiously awaited the film to start.

During the now-classic scene where Randy the Ram tells his daughter, "I’m just a broken-down piece of meat," I looked around, and folks were unashamedly wiping away tears. It’s beyond moving that something you helped create affected people so mightily.

It was at that very moment that it dawned on me.

"The film works. It works."

Mickey had pulled it off in an iconic performance

It’s a role that a hundred years from now, after we’re all gone, will continue to be savored and cherished.

I am ever so proud to be part of it.

The Haunting Parallels Between Mickey Rourke and Randy “The Ram”

Working on a film is like going to summer camp. You spend an awful lot of time with various folks. And then, sadly, you go your separate ways. Like Mickey Rourke in Iron Man 2, you move on to other projects. I did the same with our 350 Days documentary starring Bret Hart.

Now I couldn’t tell you a thing about Mickey’s very public money issues beyond the fact that none of us got rich off of The Wrestler, a small indie done on a budget of six million, which would probably be the food budget on a Marvel superhero flick.

But what I can tell you is Mickey put his heart and soul into becoming Randy "The Ram" Robinson. Then, in his 50s, he was even hurt training for it. There aren’t a lot of actors who would put their bodies through what he did for a role.

All the while, I never once saw him turn down an autograph or photo with a fan.

The Mickey Rourke I experienced was only warm, friendly, accommodating, and kind.

When the project wrapped up, we all received a most gracious thank-you letter from the man, which was not expected but greatly appreciated, and I keep it to this day.

And when I asked him at one of our many screenings what he thought of The Wrestler, what he said to me has always stuck with and even haunted me.

Looking me in the eye, he said sincerely: "I can’t watch it. It reminds me of my life."

This story is just one of many from my time on the road and on set. For more behind-the-scenes tales from the making of The Wrestler and life in the wrestling business, pick up a copy of my book, Wrestling Rings, Blackboards, and Movie Sets.

These stories may also interest you:

• The Wrestler: 9 Surprising Unrevealed Facts About The Film!
• Val Venis and the Time WWE Filmed Two Adult Film Stars
• The Iron Claw Movie: A Wrestling Site’s Honest Review

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