Just look at his face: Mickey Rourke is older. But at 59, the actor's every bit as ferocious. He just channels his aggression differently these days. Long-rumored an on-set terror, today Rourke is more elder statesman than anything. Still, he comes to play. "If you don't bring it, I'm gonna grind your ass into the ground," he says. After spending time as the toast of Hollywood in the '80s, starring in hits like Diner and Nine ½ Weeks (and later duds like Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man), Rourke gave it all up in 1991 to become a bor. After nearly a decade in the wilderness, and several bad films, he became a running industry punch line. But in 2008, after his gripping portrayal of a washed-up wrestler, Randy "The Ram" Robinson, in Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler—a thrilling follow-up to the promise of his turn as the psychotic Marv in Robert Rodriguez's Sin City—Rourke confirmed that the hulk-of-a-man still had supreme acting chops.
Now, he channels his pent-up aggression—and he's still got some—into his role as the titan badass Hyperion in the mythological gorefest, Immortals. We got Rourke on the phone to talk about no-BS directors, green screens, and why some people don't give a shit about two-decade old tabloid fodder.
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GQ: I read your character in Immortals was supposed to represent the Charles Manson of mythology.
Mickey Rourke: It's interesting that you say that. Because they based my character really on the French soccer player who plays... was playing on the national team.
GQ: Zinedine Zidane?
**Mickey Rourke: **No, no. Excuse me—rugby player. He didn't make the national team this year, but I forget his name. I have a picture that I still have on my ox.
GQ: So they wanted you to emulate him?
Mickey Rourke: Yeah, it was the look, you know? He has, like, shoulder-length hair, the full beard, you know? And then you see him with like a number on his back so he looked like he was playing rugby, you know?
GQ: I hear you ask probing questions on set to challenge your co-stars.
Mickey Rourke: Probably.
GQ: Fair enough. How was working with the notoriously meticulous director Tarsem Singh?
Mickey Rourke: [He's] very visual. Very well prepared. He's very good with... people can get lost along the way and think, "Oh, he's a guy out of commercials that's very visual." But he's also extremely hard working and really bright. We did a scene in particular where he may come over and give you an adjustment and it's usually something that's... it's always something that takes your character to another level, let's say. So he's very good with getting you prepared. He's so smart that he can visualize it more than you can in a way. So he can take your performance to another level. I think that's pretty much what I knew about him and heard about him before I decided to do it.
GQ: So he feeds off his actors.
**Mickey Rourke: **He tells you what to do and then lets you just go, you know? And he'll go, 'Oh that was great' And then he'll say 'Do what you just did but do this afterwards.' And so that makes it exciting because he comes up with a choice that even makes it better than the choice you made.
GQ: That's requires trust on an actor's part.
**Mickey Rourke: **Very few directors, believe it or not, can do that. But I think, you look at his commercial reel or whatever, you see this guy's really switched on. He's really smart. He's so well prepared that it makes your job easier.
GQ: What was your pre-existing knowledge of mythology before accepting this role?
**Mickey Rourke: **I mean I do understand it and I know it and I've seen it. I was a big fan when I was a kid watching the Steve Reeves movies. Steve Reeves was probably the first actor I ever admired, you know? I was probably eight years old and he was Hercules, you know? And he was probably the best Hercules ever. So, you know, I grew up watching that shit. I knew a little bit about it, but now they make movies differently than they did in the old days. With all the special effects. Everybody asks what it was like to work with the green screen and the digital and it's no different really than anything else.
GQ: It's not harder to immerse yourself in the scene?
**Mickey Rourke: **Maybe for some people it is. But not really.
GQ: There were some intense fight scenes in Immortals. Those had to be physically grueling.
**Mickey Rourke: **Yeah, it really was.
GQ: More than The Wrestler?
**Mickey Rourke: **Nothing was as hard as that. [laughs]
GQ: Both mentally and physically?
**Mickey Rourke: **Right. Yes.
GQ: Has your stint as a bor helped you in these types of physically demanding roles?
**Mickey Rourke: **Yeah, I think so. I think the sort of understanding the grind of what I've got to do to get myself there and the focus. Even moreso the concentration and focus as well as the physicality.
GQ: This was your first 3D film.
**Mickey Rourke: **I don't know.
GQ: Any opinion on it?
**Mickey Rourke: **I don't really have a take on it, to tell you the truth.
GQ: Do you find yourself mentoring young actors on set?
**Mickey Rourke: **Absolutely. And I take my sports background into everything I do. So if you're not prepared, I'll be more than happy to grind you into the ground. And I would appreciate it if someone does that to me too—in the competitive spirit as it goes. But I don't think a lot of people look at it that way. But it's the way I am.
GQ: You'd want to be challenged if you weren't cutting it.
**Mickey Rourke: **Yeah. I want them to bring it. If you don't bring it then I'm gonna grind your ass into the ground.
GQ: Any particular instance of bonding with a co-star?
**Mickey Rourke: **There was a young actor who died who I worked with a couple years ago who was really, really good. I forget his name even now. I think he OD'ed or something. And I remember seeing this young guy. [Editor's note: Rourke is referring to the late Brad Renfro, whom he worked with on 2009's The Informers]. He had all kinds of drinking and drug problems and shit. And it was like, he was fearless though. It's like, I looked at him and I went, I said to him, I said, 'Hey man, if you need a place to stay or you want to go to the gym and work out.' And he ended up dying. As an actor he was fearless. He was very courageous. But there was something about this young kid that I admired and even with working with me, he was fearless.
GQ: Are you treated differently now in Hollywood thanks to the success of films like The Wrestler?
**Mickey Rourke: **I think so. I think the effort that we put forth in that movie, that Darren [Aronofsky] put forth, that I put forth. I think it just took things to another level. It was like, you just gotta keep on grinding. You gotta keep on working really hard. After The Wrestler I said, "OK, I accomplished this but I gotta keep on moving forward."
GQ: I see parallels between your role as Hyperion in Immortals and as Marv in Sin City.
**Mickey Rourke: **It's very similar, like you say. I'm glad you noticed that. Also you're working with very bright, innovative, visionary directors that are glad to have you there. They don't care about the past reputation. They don't care about all this crap. They care about, they're judging you for what you bring in the moment. Not what somebody said about twenty fucking years ago, you know? So these guys were all young directors. They don't care. They don't care about all that old crap. They care about who shows up today. If you're prepared today, if you can bring it today.
GQ: As an actor that's all you can ask for. To be judged in the moment.
**Mickey Rourke: **Yeah, and as a person. I'm very grateful for the second chance, the second time around. And I'm also going to be very prepared.
GQ: Any truth to the rumors that you're going to be playing Motörhead's** Lemmy Kilmister in a biopic?**
**Mickey Rourke: **No.
GQ: So what's next then?
**Mickey Rourke: **My next film is going to be on the rugby player who came out and announced that he was gay, Garrett Thomas. It's a film I wrote called The Beautiful Game. I read about him and I had heard some stuff on the sports channels about him. And I thought, "Wow, that would make an interesting story. A rugby player who was married for six years and then comes out and announces to the world that he's gay." And I thought it was very challenging. So I went over there and I obtained the rights to it and I wrote the script.
GQ: It's a good day when a macho rugby player can come out.
**Mickey Rourke: **He's a very courageous guy. I'm honored to do his story.
