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In a tragic example of life imitating art, Scott Siegel, who played a steroid pusher in The Wrestler, recently pled guilty to possession of steroids and other charges. According to LoHud.com, in an attempt to avoid arrest by the Drug Enforcement Administration on February 18th, Siegel fled in his truck, ultimately leading police on a "wild demolition-derby-style chase" before being arrested.
Siegel pled guilty to one count of possession for 1,500 bottles of anabolic steroids and two counts of using a deadly weapon to assault officers, due to hitting several police cars and trying to run over an officer on foot. Siegel is in jail pending his January 14th sentencing and could serve up to 20 years in prison just for the top charge.
Posted 10.04.09 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."
Posted 08.20.09 by BrentJS -
Mickey Rourke's career has experienced a resurgence following his turn in Sin City and his Oscar-nominated performance as a charismatic but troubled has-been wrester in Darren Aronofksy's The Wrestler. Now, Rourke will appear as the nemesis of Tony "Iron Man" Stark, played by Robert Downey Jr.
In a recent interview with The Guardian, Rourke talked about his upcoming role as the villain in Iron Man 2. Rourke plays the heavily tattooed Russian Ivan, also known as Whiplash. In preparation, Rourke took a stab at learning a little of his character's native tongue:
I decided to do half my role in Russian, and that's hard because the Russian language doesn't roll off the English-speaking tongue very easily. I spent three hours a day with a teacher, and after two weeks I know four sentences! Let me see, it's sort of like ... "Yezzamee menya ... Yezzamee manya obott ... Er, nemaboootty menya..." It means, "If someone kills me, don't wake me up, because I'd rather be dead than live in your world."
We can't wait to see what Rourke looks and sounds like dishing out those lines.
Posted 06.08.09 by reelz -
If you can't decide which side of the Mickey Rourke/Sean Penn divide you're on this weekend, here's a reason to choose Mickey. His beloved Chihuahua, Loki, has died. Little Loki, often seen on the red carpet with Rourke, passed away Monday night. He was 18 years old, or an astounding 126 in dog years.
Rourke thanked his dogs, Loki among them, in his Golden Globe acceptance speech last month. The notoriously troubled actor recently told Barbara Walters that "the dogs were there when no one else was there."
Maybe, just maybe, little Loki will be looking down from doggy heaven on Sunday night, ensuring all things go Rourke's way. RIP little guy.
Posted 02.18.09 by reelz -
The Wrestler is an eye-opening look at the dark underbelly of professional wrestling. On the big screen, pro wrestling has traditionally been approached from a comical perspective. After all, it's fake, right? But writer Robert D. Siegel's dark script goes far deeper, an examination of the tolls such a lifestyle can take on a former hero once the big shows have stopped calling.
By now, you've probably heard plenty about Mickey Rourke's revealing emotional performance as The Ram. The praise is no exaggeration. He digs deep, disappearing within this characterization, turning in the finest performance of his career.
Read more in our review of The Wrestler.
Posted 12.18.08 by reelz -
If there's one thing director Darren Aronofsky has proven over the course of his relatively young career in Hollywood, it is to expect the unexpected.
The Wrestler tells the tale of the downtrodden former wrestling star Randy "The Ram" Robinson (aka Robin Ramzinski). Mickey Rourke's deeply emotional portrayal has been the talk of the town over the past month, and the actor was just nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance. More than just a story about a single individual, The Wrestler is an examination of the less-glamorous afterlife of a professional wrestling star.
Read more about Aronofsky's critically acclaimed examination of the wrestling world in our Exclusive Interview with The Wrestler Director Darren Aronofsky.
Posted 12.17.08 by reelz -
David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Ron Howard's Frost/Nixon lead nominations with five apiece. Heath Ledger received his expected posthumous nomination for his stellar performance as The Joker in The Dark Knight, although the nod was the only love the Globes showed the year's most successful fan favorite.
In the "Musical or Comedy" categories, much love was shown for In Bruges and Vicky Christina Barcelona, with both being nominated for Best Picture as well as two nods apiece in the Musical or Comedy acting categories.
Mickey Rourke continues to draw acclaim for his transformation in The Wrestler, while his costar Marisa Tomei (considered an outside chance) was nominated in the supporting category. Bruce Springsteen's theme song was also nominated.
78-year-old Clint Eastwood shows no signs of slowing down. The Hollywood legend surfaced in two unusual categories, nominated for Changeling's score and the theme song to Gran Torino, which Eastwood sings.
See all the movie Golden Globe Nominations.
Posted 12.11.08 by reelz -
Nearly two months ago Variety teased us with their review of Mickey Rourke's performance in The Wrestler, calling it a "galvanizing, humorous, deeply moving portrait that instantly takes its place among the great, iconic screen performances." The movie, directed by Darren Aronofsky, is getting Oscar buzz, too, and we've finally got the trailer.
Posted 11.21.08 by reelz -
Believe it or not, there was a time when Mickey Rourke did not look like Halloween's Michael Myers on a Hawaiian vacation. There was a time, in fact, when a lot of people thought Mickey was going to be the next Marlon. That thought evaporated around 1986 (9 1/2 Weeks was no Last Tango in Paris). But now Rourke is back, Variety insists, and "simply staggering" in the lead role of Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler, which is currently showing at the Venice Film Festival. How staggering exactly? According to Variety, Rourke delivers a "galvanizing, humorous, deeply moving portrait that instantly takes its place among the great, iconic screen performances." Ouch, whoo, that was quite a flurry of adjectives -- you totally had us tapping out at "galvanizing, humorous, deeply moving...." But we have to admit, we're pretty intrigued.
Posted 09.05.08 by reelz -
Renee Zellweger will likely be starring in the comedy, My One and Only, based on the unusual childhood of uber-tan actor George Hamilton, in which his mother went on search of a wealthy man to supprt her and her sons. Charlie Peters (3 Men and a Little Lady) wrote the script. Richard Loncraine (Firewall, Wimbledon) will direct.
Marisa Tomei will star as a stripper opposite Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler, Darren Aronofsky's new drama about an over-the-hill '80s wrestler (Rourke). Tomei was recently seen looking fabulous in Sidney Lumet's Before the Devil Knows You're Dead.
And Patrick Wilson (the hottie dad in Little Children) has signed to star in Barry Munday, a romantic comedy about a philanderer who is named in a paternity suit. The movie is based on the Frank Turner Holton's novel, Life in a Strange Place.
Source: Variety.
Posted 02.12.08 by reelz