Mickey Rourke - The Late Show with David Letterman 2008

now this is going to be interesting our next guest uh recently earned a golden globe nomination for his stirring role uh in a new film entitled uh the wrestler and it is currently playing in selected cities and and by the way people say well dave if a movie is playing in selected cities who selects those cities burt reynolds i i selects those cities ladies and gentlemen please welcome back to the program mickey rourke [Music] [Music] [Applause] ah merry christmas merry christmas are you allowed to say that you can say merry christmas christmas merry christmas merry christmas how are you doing i'm having a merry christmas good i think the last time you were here uh you had a dog with you and i know you're a dog lover how many dogs do you have at the moment you've got six six dogs and you uh you get them you recover them you take care of them in rehabilitation places where dogs have been abandoned or mistreated is that is that part of it that's that's right i've got one now uh the one i brought on the show several years ago the one that kept acting up every time the camera kept coming closer you know she's usually very quiet and she raised hell and she's uh 17 and a half now 17 and a half that's that's old for a dog isn't it and yeah it's old and she's getting bronzed right now really for real did you uh did you ever ever work with dogs i mean where does your love of dogs come from well i love dogs but i did have a job uh when i was about 19 i first came to new york from miami and i tried a few different jobs working construction i think washing dishes on the circle line the massage parlors wait a minute i'm sorry washing dishes on the circle line good gig yeah and well that was a funny job because you'd walk on the deck at five and it's you know it's a big boat then you go down to the galley i guess what they call it where the dishwashers are and you finish at midnight and you never see the water oh man and i forgot to wear my rubber gloves so my hands were you know when you're washing millions of dishes your hands fall apart and i thought screw this job i'm going to get something else so and then you started to mention massage something yeah massage parlors back when 42nd street was 42nd street when it was you know yeah and you were i had a my job was uh i worked in this massage parlor slash whorehouse and um it was right next i'll never forget it was right next to a place that's not there anymore where you could get all the spaghetti you could eat for 95 cents i ate that twice a day uh but what was your job at the massage place what did you do my job was um i was in charge of the flyboys now the fly boys are the ones that have little pieces of paper little like this that says oh these are the guys that pass out the leaflets yeah yeah like uh you know ruby palace massage parlor blah blah sure so there'd be young you know young mostly young spanish kids you know that uh were tough enough to be fly boys and so what they'd have they'd get like oh i'd say about a thousand flyers and they'd have to stand on various corners and give them out and lots of times you know they would throw them in the gutter and then you know go play pinball or uh the pimps would come by and take the fly flyers so i had two jobs i had one job where i had to say to the fly boy where's your flyers and then the other job i had was to say to the pimp leave the flag boys alone right oh so no yeah would you do this yeah leave the so you're strapped i was strapped brother yeah yeah whoa and i had a it was i i didn't have a lot of money and the only the only iron i could get a hold of was something called the butt line special the the bunt lines special it's a big revolver why it appears to carry one as well i'd be on the i'd be on the subway and it would be sticking out of my knee and uh don't you hate it when the pimp's stopped by i hate it when the pimp stopped by oh yeah that was you quit stopping by here will you yeah they really the fly boys were terrified of the pimps now listen mickey i want to talk about this movie i saw the the film what a it's a great story it's a it's a very simple story but complex in its uh many facets as life often is and you're tremendous in the movie and and in some ways i found it was interesting that you feel that it's kind of represents a bit of your life and your path and career in hollywood yeah but it's uh congratulations on this and were there stunt guys in here or is that actually you we see diving around the ring that was me the director darren aronofsky really tremendous director i'd watched a couple of other films he did pie and requiem and fountain and i thought wow this is a very interesting filmmaker hang on right there we'll do a commercial come right back talk to mickey rourke about the rest of it all right thank you now it's about a uh it's about a guy who is it was a one point a wrestler and and i guess a big deal wrestler and then like everything else uh life kind of passes him by a little bit and he decides that he really can't let it go can't let it go because this is what he did and he wants to continue and even make a big glorious comeback but there are many many other issues and now in the movie you look like a real wrestler you're all you're all pumped up and uh yeah yeah pumped up this is uh this is just something i had several months to put on like 34 pounds of muscle wow how do you put on 34 pounds of muscle um it's hard yeah it's it's hard brother it's uh is exercise diet well i had a really great uh i went down to miami and i met this israeli ex-commando uh cage fighter and he was very strict with me i would actually on some nights when i because miami's a very fun city and uh some nights i was out a little you know too late dancing and carousing or you could call it sure and uh mainly carousing that 99 spaghetti yeah yeah and uh danielle would come to my hotel room or he called me from the lobby and you know i would i would kind of go oh god i'm not going i can't do it today next thing i know is uh he'd be knocking on the door and i'd curl up in a ball and wouldn't answer the door then about 10 minutes later i hear the the key door opening and i'm trying to curl up into such a little ball that maybe he thinks it's just the sheets and he would say the f word to me and you went out and i say with his israeli accent he says let's move your ass i'd say okay let's go we'd go to the gym and i never really had lifted heavy heavy weights before i usually lift light weights just to maintain so he had me on a diet work eating six seven times a day big shake protein shakes and uh supplements so now in the wrestling scenes did you know did somebody teach you how to be a wrestler i didn't know demo about wrestling it was a sport that i didn't follow i didn't know anything about um the one of the special things about working with daryanovsky he's very prepared and he also got to know me and he knew what kind of personalities to put around me so he hired a great stunt coordinator doug crosby and actually uh one of the wild samoans who is the uh uncle of dwayne johnson the rock and these guys broke my ass for four months and uh i i think i had three mris in two months you can get injured absolutely that's what i didn't know about professional wrestling is that you know because we all know that it's entertainment but when somebody's 250 pounds twirling you around throwing you down something's going to shake rattle and roll same like here every night you just never know yeah but then this the the guy had the movie he wrote the movie was it his idea for you to always be in it were you the star i think darren had this movie i think in development for uh 10 years and then he you know he had a brainstorm and thought oh mickey rourke so we'd met and then we met uh i'd never met him before and he everything i heard about him was was excellent it was the same kind of feedback that you hear about coppola or people that have a you know cert work a certain way they're very innovative very very very smart very a lot of integrity with the type of work they do and then they can take material and transcend it because of how bright they are when you first got together what what did he say about you and this part what did he say well the first thing he said i think we were sitting down in the in the west village and he just said hey dude i said come on don't call me dude man he said yeah dude no he's he's not he's from brooklyn i didn't know they said that in brooklyn oh but i used to have an assistant that called me dude and i used the short circuit so i said listen so i can't call you dude you can call me whatever you want anyway and thank you for having me on the show it's always a pleasure okay um so anyway after this after i don't think to be honest with you i don't think i said don't call me dude the first time okay okay uh because i really wanted the job and i wanted to work with him and i've been out of work for a decade what did he what did he what did he tell you about what he wanted you for the movie what could you bring to the film well he's not a very physical guy because he's got such a large brain you know so he he compensates with his mind he goes you've ruined your career for the last 15 years you you you could have been this and you could have been that person and now and now i can't even raise a nickel on your name and i want you to do this movie and how am i going to do that i'm thinking well you're supposed to figure that out not me but he said but if if you do this movie and he's like this you're going to do everything i say you're going to listen to everything i tell you and you're never ever going to disrespect me in front of the crew whoa and i can't pay you did you hear that paul no i did i didn't hear that i didn't hear that anyway it's a wonderful um it's a great film it's it's a it's a small film with the huge uh characters larger than life and uh but but many life lessons in this film we'll show a clip here mickey what are we going to see i don't know this is a little bit of the wrestler it's now playing in selected cities around the country let's take a look here [Music] hey all right that's plenty i don't know that was that was a mistake uh here it is actually and you nominated a golden globe award is that correct nominated for a golden globe which uh you know i'm really well that's great very grateful for the other thing is um bruce springsteen wrote a song from me i wrote him a letter and he i asked him i told him that i thought this was the best movie i ever did in the hardest movie and there were a lot of parallels with with the character in my with my life and i've known bruce for quite a while uh uh and he he was quite busy on the european tour he took the time to write a very beautiful song called the wrestler which i couldn't be more proud congratulations it's now playing in selected cities mickey rourke thank you very much mickey nice going

Channel: Cool City Cactus

Views: 54,959

Rating: 4.8118811 out of 5

Keywords: The Wrestler, angel heart, diner, rumble fish, year of the dragon, animal factory, Ashby, Immortals, Passion Play, The Expendables, Iron Man 2, Stormbreaker, Domino, Man on Fire, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Spun, Buffalo '66, The Rainmaker, Double Team, Bullet, Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man, Desperate Hours, Wild Orchid, Johnny Handsome, Francesco, Homeboy, Barfly, A Prayer for the Dying, 9½ Weeks, The Pope of Greenwich Village, Fall Time, 9 1/2 weeks, point blank

Id: aB4HU55kAwI

Length: 12min 8sec (728 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 10 2020