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Price and I went to see a special preview by the Hammer Museum of The Wrestler, directed and produced by Darren Aronofsky, starring Mickey Rourke. Afterward the Hammer hosted a Q&A with Aronofsky and Mickey. Mickey Rourke gave a stellar performance in the film and stated as a matter of fact that the credit for his performance was due to Darren’s direction and that instead of learning to wrestle for four months he’d rather be in Miami getting laid. Mickey discussed, how as a young actor with a passion for boxing and competition that he strived to be the best actor Hollywood has ever known, but quickly found out that in Hollywood being good at acting and being an A-lister were two totally different things. This knowledge assisted Rourke in his downward spiral of renegade carelessness, alcoholism and drug addiction. Mickey said that Darren was a “tough” director and that his toughness was key in assisting him to be the best he’s ever been in a film to date. Mickey went on to explain that by “tough” he didn’t mean to scare other actors away from working with Darren, because his toughness was not hard nosed, but more a sense of passion and dedication to produce the best film while encouraging actors under his direction to be their best. Darren talked about how it was difficult to find financing for the film because of Mickey’s past reputation. If my memory serves me correctly I believe the movie was made for around 10 million dollars. The sound track by Bruce Springsteen was a donation because of Mickey’s relationship with the boss and Axl Rose gave the rights to use a song off of Appetite for Destruction for 20k, which is supposedly unheard of. In this brief video clip Mickey talks about how he first discovered director, Darren Aronofsy and his perception of Aronofsky as a film maker, which compelled him to want to star in the film. Shortly after the Q&A started it became apparent that Mickey was appreciative of the opportunity to speak to the audience, but would rather wrap it up to go outside to suck on a Marlboro Red.

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