Mickey Rourke Blames Himself for Almost Ruining His Career
Posted 08.20.09 by BrentJS
Americans love to see a celebrity fall from grace. Just look at the plethora of tabloid magazines and TV shows that focus on celebrities who gain weight, lose their jobs, get arrested, and O.D. Americans also love a good comeback story, it's just that those stories are much harder to come by. One of the recent "comeback kids" is actor Mickey Rourke, a once-rising star who squandered away his acting career and nearly demolished his own body in a stint as a professional boxer.
It may sound harsh, but Rourke is the first to admit his complicity in this fall from grace. While at the Sarajevo Film Festival, Rourke took the blame for his early career failures, saying, "I wasn't real responsible," and that he "paid the price for it."
It's better to never work than to have worked and become a has been. I have been a has been for 12, 13 years. You feel terrible about yourself, you are not in control any more.
Even though boxing damaged his body, Rourke said that it gave him the mental fortitude to forge ahead with his acting career once he could longer step in the ring.
I think sports gave me a mindset to keep moving, that I'm not dead. You learn to pick yourself up and keep going .
Now, it appears Rourke's career has been resurrected. He earned an Oscar nomination for his turn as a washed-up professional wrester in the Darren Aronofsky-directed movie The Wrestler and he's generating considerable buzz for his upcoming role as Whiplash in Iron Man 2. When asked about Iron Man 2 in Sarajevo, Rourke said that it will "be better than Iron Man 1, that I can guarantee you."