Caffeinated Clint
Out stumping “Immortals”, the typically-unedited Mickey Rourke tells The Herald-Sun a little about his plans for the Gareth Thomas biopic and why he dropped out of “Seven Psychopaths” (to be replaced by Woody Harrelson).
Rourke, who turns 60 shortly, will play rugby player Thomas in a biopic he also put pen to paper on.
The more research I did and the more writing I did I realised I’ve gotta take a whole year off to train for it before I even think about doing it. So it took me several months to write the script and we’ve been in training for the last six months. .. It’s called The Beautiful Game….It all happened one night when I was in London promoting something and I ended up in a bar at 4 in the morning and met these four guys that played for Huddersfield. We were arm-wrestling, I tore my ligament, this guy, he was a front-row guy, he was just huge! We became friends, we kept in contact.
They gave me a magazine about their team and there happened to be an article in there about Gareth Thomas. Then a few months later there was a sports show on TV and they were talking about Gareth coming out of the closet and I thought, ‘F—, that would make a great movie’. I flew over to Wales, introduced myself and said, ‘I wanna do your story’…. right now the physical thing is harder than I thought it was going to be. We’ve scheduled about 15 days of rugby in the movie and I’m just trying to get fit enough that I can do several things: running 30 metres at full speed … Oh God. I actually moved my trainer into living with me now.
“The Beautiful Game”, which Rourke says he’ll be donning a Welsh accent for, begins filming in March.
The actor expects it to be the most challenging but best movie of his career.
This rugby [movie], it’ll probably be the most passionate and best movie I ever make in my life. This is it for me. It’s all or nothing, the chips are all on the table. This is the last time that you’ll see Mickey Rourke sprint 30 metres.We’ve been training for six months. We are gonna do it. I’ve got my trainer sitting here glaring at me now – making me eat a cheeseburger without the bread. He’s relocated from Miami to New York so he’s with me 24/7. He’s the first thing I see in the morning … (To his trainer) That’s right, ‘thing’, motherf—er. Tattooed, steroid motherf—er (laughs).
Rourke says he hopes to bring his “Immortals” co-star John Hurt in on the movie.
Oh John, I love John. I’ve got a nice role written for John in the rugby movie. Can I see that? No. Yeah, with a gun in one hand and a drink in the other (laughs).
John and I didn’t get to work together, we didn’t even get to see each other up there, we worked on different days. But he’s one of my favourites ever since I was in acting class and saw him in Midnight Express. He’s a great actor.
Before he begins “The Beautiful Game”, Rourke says he’s “gonna do a little cameo in something.”..
interesting? What’s filming between now and March that would require a Rourke cameo? Surely “Iron Man” wouldn’t have him back after his comments regarding the sequel?
Of “Seven Psychopaths”, a comedy about a screenwriter who gets caught up in his friend’s dog-kidnapping plot, Rourke said he exited after a blew with the producer.
The producer’s a scumbag, he’s the one. He wanted to make up his own f—ing rules, and I’d like to see his resume. Pffft. Yeah. Their loss.
Indeed.
