I guess you either like Mickey Rourke, or you don’t.  I am a huge fan of his early work– Diner, The Pope of Greenwich Village, Rumblefish and Barfly.  Rourke had an intensity and edge that wasn’t an act or a persona, you felt it was really him.  He made people uncomfortable and still does– only in a different way now.  But somewhere along the way, we lost Mickey– or he lost us.  He got squirrelly, and his face started morphing faster than Jiffy Pop over a campfire– and he started hanging out with the likes of Dennis Rodman and Jean Claude Van Damme– what’s that all about?  I hope the old “birds of a feather” saying isn’t always true for your sake, brother.

Christopher Walken interviews Rourke (the crazy leading the crazy) for Interview magazine.  Lots of good nuggets to mine–

MR: I was so nervous working with you. I think you had already won your Academy Award forThe Deer Hunter [1978].

CW: Just, like, a month before we started shooting. I was probably really obnoxious at the time.

MR: Well, you were actors’ royalty, brother. I mean, you were someone we all looked up to.

CW: No, I was probably a pain in the ass.

MR: Well, you were always, like, this strange being from another place. Continue reading →