Mickey Rourke and extreme Method Acting

I believe it was the late great Roger Ebert or maybe another who stated that it was hard to know where Rourke ended and Randy the Ram began in his review of Aranofskys 2008 tale of redemption, The Wrestler. I would go as far as to say where to even begin with Rourke, a man who appears to have gone on a wild method acting exodus with a staged boxing career (yes, his fights were with guys who took a dive) and intentional career destruction along with the cold harsh penniless side of celebrity when the whole world looks his just to prepare for a single role. Method acting is a very strange sort of art that blends elements of going into a role so deep that you’re seeking to fragment your personality and speak through the asumed person who is not a set of lines but a new personality living and breathing within you. This mental clay whereby you fashion a golem through experience and emotional highs and lows to traumatise that character into who you are during that shoot. We cover this in depth in this article so if you fancy knowing more, CLICK HERE.

Kabballa, Hollywood Magick and Rourkes Look

Too look at Rourke before his staged boxing that allegedly reformed his face into the current oddity that seems to yo-yo between looking ok and looking like it might fly off if he sneezes hard enough, one thing is apparent. It wasn’t boxing because there boxers with over 100 fights don’t look that bad. Broken noses,scare tissue in eyebrows and sometimes staring blankly into nowhere and sounding five years old are tragically too common but no ones face is falling off. Trust me, I covered boxing and MMA as a journalist for years and not once did I ever witness or watch on the many fights on TV ever anyone suffering whatever Rourke has befallen. Some suspect it’s a facial transplant and he died years back, others whisper that he is a golem (an artificial man created by other men), a modern day Frankenstein from Hollywood Hills and some even say that he is actually the antichrist. The latter is born out of how the story of Johnny Favourite in occultic classic Angel Heart in which Rourke delivered a fantastic performance as the young good looking man with the world at his feet. In that movie he is a satanic occultist living in another mans memories to escape the devil. People will refer back to these things when less than 20 years on you look like someone whos stole another mans face. The choice to work with Jewish Mysticism practising directing Stewart Rosenberg and then his equally kabballistic protege, Darren Aronofksy while training with the coven like Actors Studio Method Acting Mecca and pitching to all that you would do something in acting no one else has throws further fuel on these fires.

What clear and very apparent is that if not physically, and quite amazingly that’s possible, then mentally these are not the two same men. The differences in Rourke are so profound that you have to wonder if you really would want to know the truth about who or what he has become or in a more sensible and grounded view, is method acting really sensible?

Angel Heart, Mickey Rourke Autobiography?

In the movie, Rourke is a private detective who is tasked by a one Louis Cyphre (Lucifer) to track down Johnny Favourite. As it turns out and with intentionally heavy foreshadowing that works brilliantly with the modern gothic vibe of the movie, he is chasing himself and Lucifer has come for his soul. Basically, Johnny Favourite stole someone elses life consciousness after selling his soul to Satan (this never happens in real life obviously) for stardom and then reneging on the contract. It’s an unusual concept in that he remains in the same body but then takes consciousness of another. This allows Lucifer to set him up to chase himself so the film noir element is a detective finding himself…just not on a beach in Thailand.

Rourke himself has a wild history and had a sort of rebirth after a terrible relationship with Carre Otis and a curse on his face that’s never really confirmed as his awful boxing career or a drunk plastic surgeon. Basically, no one know why Rourkes face looks as it did but initially it looked like either a face transplant or that he had stuck his face into a nuclear reactor. Seriously, who accidentally stretches someones ears along with the other bungling that his face took. It’s like a 6 year old drew him all those years back.

Let’s get this into perspective, Rourke even has an ear that seems to have grown out of shape. Boxers 60 fights in don’t look that bad. What happened to cause that ear thing?

The rebirth of Rourke has been a real life Rocky tale but also you have parallels to his own movie Angel Heart.

Facial transplants often take a while to take but eventually they look pretty good. Things have come long leaps and bounds over the years.

The Mickey Rourke story reminds us of how easy it is to write people off over looks, that sometimes life imitates art (The Wrestler, Angel Heart) and that facial transplants have really come on a long long way.

Seeing Mickey back in the Hollywood inner circle really does show how he has changed within himself. The angry Mickey Rourke who ran a boxing gym and had annoyed the entire industry inside out with his honest views on the acting craeft, the Hollywood cults and the secretive often hidden groups seems a different person altogether. Mickey often made homophobic comments about his fellow actors but he is rumoured to spend alot of time in the company of gay friends, wears what appears to be womens clothes on occasion and has on off boyfriends Guiseppe Franco and British boxer/actor/model Gary Stretch. Although Mickey hasn’t stated that he is gay or bisexual the evidence to suggest he is at very least open to relationships with men and women, it’s worth remembering that the hardman images don’t tend to survive that revelation so the celluloid closet, overcrowded as it is in there these days is the best career move.

Mickey spoke many times about wanting to do somehting that no one else had done. As a method actor, an approach to a role that has mythical and vague descriptions but involves seeking complete emptional oneness with the role.

“Mickey Rourke sometimes looks like the facial muscles aren’t connected to the skin. It’s a strange effect that’s in every other case known to us the result of a facial transplant. Very unfortunate for Mickey, the fake hair looks good but he is very far from the 80s stunner we once knew”

Great to have you back Mickey even if you are so bafflingly different in almost every way.