The Wrestler: Darren Aronofsky Gets Rourke to Wrestle His Demons Away
By Ronn Levine, DC Film Society Member
Walking to the front of the theatre with Marisa Tomei after last month’s Washington premiere of his new film, The Wrestler, Darren Aronofsky looks pleased—which is good because he should be. He makes interesting movies for a living—Pi, Requiem for a Dream and The Fountain—got the talented Mickey Rourke to act and not act up, sweated as Bruce Springsteen serenaded him this summer with a song for this movie, reportedly lives in Manhattan’s East Village with Oscar-winner Rachel Weiss and their son, and, well, that’s enough in my book on why someone should be pleased.
Tomei, also an Oscar-winner for My Cousin Vinny—a film that the mere mention of at a recent dinner party caused half the people to start acting out the courtroom scenes—and looking shapely and confident off her role as a stripper/love interest in the film, should be the bigger draw at this Q&A, but she’s not. Aronofsky is. It’s a film crowd and we want to know film things.
Why Rourke in the lead role? ("I’m kind of into actors who are a surprise.") Why all those shots from behind? ("My mentor is Stuart Rosenberg, who directed Cool Hand Luke and then Pope of Greenwich Village with Mickey. One of the lessons he taught us was he always talked about how Mickey could act really well with his back. There’s a moment [in Pope] when Darryl Hannah dumps him and slaps him, he puts on his jacket and goes out into the world, and Mickey was so expressive that way. So I got to shoot a lot of Mickey’s back to impress my mentor.") And how did you get that deli scene where Mickey was serving customers to look so damn realistic? ("You could probably tell that some of those people weren’t actors, they were really ordering meat from Mickey. We didn’t have enough money to close the supermarket or deli counter so we just ran with it. It worked out.")
To his credit, Aronofsky, a couple months shy of his 40th birthday and looking younger, comes off every-guyish. He prefers the time he gets to spend with the actors versus the "year and a half to two years working on effects for The Fountain." He was in complete shock and awe of Springsteen—more on that later. And he was obviously fixated by pro wrestling, saying it was one of the many ideas for a movie that he wrote down when he graduated film school.
The Wrestler follows the after-stardom, weekend-wrestling life of Randy the Ram Robinson (Rourke), as he hits a career/health crossroads. Aronofsky shows us the grittiness of pro wrestling in all its choreographed, staple-gun, bumps-and-stitches glory. But he also shows the intense camaraderie in the locker room, and it’s that element that many athletes will tell you they miss most after retiring. Two women are prominent in his life: Cassidy (Tomei), the similarly post-stardom stripper, who he seeks time outside their "rings" with; and Stephanie, his estranged daughter, powerfully played by Evan Rachel Wood.
"I don’t think we’ve ever seen Marisa or Mickey like this before," Aronofsky says. Certainly, Rourke is almost unrecognizable from his pretty-boy days in The Diner and Johnny Handsome. "For me that’s always exciting—you don’t know what an actor’s going to do next. And then the physicality was really hard. I wasn’t sure Mickey could pull it off. He weighed about 190, and he’s a big guy but he’s not Hulk Hogan size. But then he put on about 36 pounds of muscle over six months and turned into a wrestler."
"Both roles are demanding," Tomei adds, getting laughs and her first words in. She smiles. "It’s true! That was one of the first things that Darren talked to me about—how their stories are parallel, and how they both use their bodies to make a living; they’re both at a crossroads and have a passion for what they do. I feel my character had that.... I didn’t have to put on weight though."
Rourke’s involvement was crucial for Aronofsky, though he also says that it’s why it took him two years to get the $6 million-dollar financing. "Every single financier said no to Mickey Rourke," he says, referring to his alleged bad-boy past, made worse by a number of questionable decisions on the roles he accepted and turned down. "Marisa and Evan Rachel Wood had more [cache]. It’s really funny how financing works."
After Aronofsky had the idea for the film, he remembers reading "a script by this guy Rob Segal who used to be the editor of The Onion for several years. And he wrote a great screenplay that had humor but also darkness. It was based on football so I knew he was a sports fan. We just started talking and 25 drafts later we shot it. It was a long development. Mickey got involved when the writer got involved so I think he was channeling Mickey from the start. It was a very hard role to cast because of the emotional depth."
For Aronofsky, The Wrestler is a departure in subject, tone and work atmosphere from his previous films. "I really just wanted to do something different," he says. "I was looking for a project that was just about acting. The first three films were like a kind of a trilogy or chapter in my filmmaker career; they all had the same stuff—the same filmmaking team, the same producer, the same production designer, the same editor, and I just really wanted to, as Madonna says, reinvent myself and do something different. I tried to do the thing that was most radically different, hire a new team, just make it all about working with actors and see what happens.
"It’s kind of death as a creative person to hold on to who you were," he goes on. "I don’t think you can ever repeat yourself. You can try but it rarely works. I wanted to be challenged, take a risk, and not have the support of subjective camera work, subjective sound design. I wanted to see if I could pull off the fight scenes without a heartbeat thumping, which is kind of the cliche. When I talked to [the actors] I said, it’s your film, and I’m going to just hang back and document it and you guys can do anything you want. That wasn’t completely true but it was sort of the intention."
But pro wrestling and stripping? In a way, it makes sense. What could be more about acting than those two occupations?
"They were all real wrestlers in the wrestling scenes," Afronofsky says. "They’re actually real comfortable in front of the camera because wrestling is closer to theater than athletics in a lot of ways. It’s all about performance, they’re always selling the moves, always selling if they’re a bad guy or good guy. They were totally up for it and incredibly natural. They were more natural than some of the day players we had. I wanted Mickey to be in that world. Everyone said you gotta get stuntmen, but especially because wrestlers are trained to take care of their opponent, a major thing is not to hurt your opponent. They have all these sayings, put on a good show, work with each other; it just made more sense to work with real wrestlers."
Tomei also took a reality-based approach, immersing herself in the strip world, "going to a lot of clubs, hanging with a lot of girls. I didn’t really have a choreographed dance. I wanted to learn a lot of different moves so I could express her organically." She says that her character’s path is similar to that of Rourke’s. "For me, it comes down to I feel like there’s a comradeship, their lives are in parallel places, they’ve both been through the trenches together. Maybe sometimes she gets confused or he’s pushing her for a more romantic thing. She respects everything that he’s been through and wants to get him to the next point in his life. As she tries to get there herself."
As for the Springsteen connection, Rourke is old friends with The Boss. He wrote him a letter while he was on tour in Europe, and Springsteen replied that he was very busy but he would take a look at the script.
Aronofsky continues the story. "He called me, 'Yeah, this is Bruce Springsteen'; I said who’s messing with me. It didn't sound like Bruce. 'I got some ideas, I’ll have something for you in a couple weeks.' Then a couple weeks came and went, and he was playing Giants Stadium, his home turf. Mickey and I went there, and went down by the stage. My first Bruce concert and it was amazing; 80,000 people staring at one point for four hours. So much energy. Next thing I know I’m backstage with Mickey and Bruce in the Giants lockerroom, and Mickey goes, 'I’m going to leave you two guys alone, you have business to talk.' I didn’t know Mickey was going to do this. Suddenly I’m alone with Bruce and he grabs his guitar; I literally got stage fright. I’m freezing up in front of the coolest guy in the world. Eventually, I just started talking to him. He opened up his spiral notebook and said see if you like it, and played it for me, acoustically.
"He gave us the song for free," Aronofsky says. "It had nothing to do with me. I said, 'Did you see any of my films?' And he said 'Actually, no. But I know you’re serious and I’m a big fan of Mickey; he has a lot of authenticity. I was hoping he would get a chance like this, I just want to help.' Then he went and got Obama elected."
Although that got Aronofsky the "wow" factor that any director looks for, another big name gave him the approval. A couple nights earlier at a premiere in another city, the famed '80s and '90s wrestling showman, Rowdy Roddy Piper sat in the audience. "The night before someone said they were going to bring Roddy Piper along, and I said, 'Oh, can you give me his number, can I invite him?' " Aronofsky says with excitement. "So I invited him and he showed up. The second question [after the movie] was how did the wrestlers feel about the movie. 'Well, actually,' I said, 'Rowdy Roddy Piper is here,' and there was that same type of murmur that you guys [in the audience] just did, about him. 'Piper are you here?'
"There in the back left corner, furthest to the left, this silhouette stands up," Aronofsky says. " 'So what did you think?' [Piper says] 'What you guys did'—and there's a pause, you don't know which way it was gonna go. 'I don’t know where you guys did your research.' And still we don’t know. If he trashes the film, what are we gonna do? And he just said 'You couldn't have done a better job, Mickey just nailed it.' And he came up afterwards and gave Mickey a hug and basically started sobbing in his arms, because it’s the first time his story’s been told. For Mickey and me, it was a great victory, because we all wanted to impress those guys. Now we’re all excited to show them."
And show others as well. "Please spread the word!" Aronofsky shouts at the Q&A’s end, in true indie spirit.
The Wrestler is scheduled to open December 12.
The Cinema Lounge
The next meeting of the Cinema Lounge will be on Monday, December 8 at 7:00pm. The topic to be discussed is "What the hell did I just watch, a.k.a. 'bad hooks'."
The Cinema Lounge, a film discussion group, meets the second Monday of every month at 7:00pm at Barnes and Noble, 555 12th St., NW in Washington, DC (near the Metro Center Metro stop). You do not need to be a member of the Washington DC Film Society to attend. Cinema Lounge is moderated by Daniel R. Vovak, ghostwriter with Greenwich Creations.
Last month at Cinema Lounge
On November 10, 2008, we discussed "Movies ahead of their time," The meeting began with a person giving a passionate plea to consider the brilliance of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). It had: (a) Great special effects, (b) It was a science fiction film that was not a fantasy, (c) Arthur C. Clarke wrote it brilliantly, (d) It had sequels and spoofs about it, (e) It had a passionate beginning, and (f) It was a somewhat realistic depiction of the future. Someone else added that computers have advanced but ironically PanAm no longer exists.
Other movies were also ahead of their time, though they did not have a high box office: Citizen Kane (1941), The Searchers (1956), and Vertigo (1958).
We also discussed the following films:
The Princess Bride (1987) became successful after it was released through VHS. This is Spinal Tap (1984) became a reference point for Christopher Guest films and mocumentaries. Psycho (1960) was ahead of its time because of its subject matter. Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) reminded one person about the real-life person, Rupert Murdoch. Airplane (1980) spoofed true stars. It had a rapid fire quality of jokes, with even jokes in the credits. Duck Soup (1933) was anti-war and anti-nationalistic, especially unique for a film between the two world wars. The timeline of Full Metal Jacket (1987) was unique. Dr. Strangelove (1964) was revolutionary because it ridiculed atomic war. The Great Dictator (1940) made fun of Adolf Hitler, long before The Producers (1968) did. Superman (1978) was treated like a big-budget film, made great because of the casting. The Graduate (1967) set the standard for a coming-of-age film. The soundtrack was excellent and set the mood for such films. It handled the taboo topic of men having sex with older women. It also inspired John Hughes, who wrote several comedies in the 1980s. Animal House (1978) was a slapstick movie about sex, leaving a long impression about that topic on its audience. Easy Rider (1969) was great because of its use of music and its glorification of drugs. Bonnie & Clyde (1967) had an excellent final scene. In that movie, the outlaws were heroes throughout the film. In the Heat of the Night (1967) during the orchid scene, it was revolutionary when the main character (a Black man) slapped a rich White man. Basic Instinct (1992) was unique because the main character (the hero) raped a woman. There was also full nudity with Sharon Stone, in addition to excessive sex scenes. The Passion of the Christ (2004) was great because Mel Gibson flipped the bill for the whole film, outside of the Hollywood system. Die Hard (1988) had brilliant casting with Bruce Willis, a television figure at the time. In addition Alan Rickman was the bad guy, another brilliant casting decision. Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) was a B movie that was done correctly. It had no true big stars and no major special effects. Network (1976) attacked television and blurred the line between entertainment and news. At the time that was a revolutionary concept, though in the modern times it is an everyday occurrence. Other movies were ahead of the time because of their violence or twists: Matrix (1999), Fight Club (1999), The Sixth Sense (1999), and Donnie Darko (2001). Toy Story (1995) was the first evidence of the Pixar formula. Annie Hall (1977) established Woody Allen as a great writer and inspired When Harry Met Sally (1989). Jaws (1975) set the standard for books leading to blockbusters, with its B-quality movie becoming an A-list movie. The Battle of Algiers (1966) was a movie created with handheld shots. It was also unique because it was about terrorism. Rope (1948) was fun to watch because of its seemingly non-stop cuts. Birth of a Nation (1915) had many awesome qualities, including its advanced time progression, its cuts, and its big budget. The Big Bounce was a film produced with 68 frames per second, three-times that of most other films. Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), The Last Starfighter (1984), and TRON (1982) were computer-generated films. As the meeting concluded, someone commented that "King Kong (1933) looks awful if you watch it closely, even if it's an awesome film. That ape suit is an abomination in some scenes."
