Mickey Rourke Recalls Difficult Experience Filming The Wrestler

Mickey Rourke says that he didn’t have a fun time filming The Wrestler. Rourke starred as Randy “The Ram” Robinson in Darren Aronofsky’s 2008 film, which revitalized Rourke’s career. Rourke revealed on a recent episode of Celebrity Big Brother UK that the experience of making the movie wasn’t one he enjoyed.

“I wasn’t that big a fan of it,” Rourke said (per Cultaholic). “We also had such a low budget so I was working 15-16-hour days with 6 hours sleep with all the physicality. And I put on like 40 or 50 pounds so my body was uncomfortable at that weight.”

He continued, “The last day of working on The Wrestler I was sitting in my living room in New York and I was on the couch shaking, and crying, and hyperventilating, and exhausted. And they’re going, ‘Hey, where are you? We’re at the wrap party.” And I had called my priest, my doctor, my psychiatrist because I felt like I was dying.”

Rourke earned a Golden Globe for Best Actor for the film and was nominated for an Oscar. He has previously spoken on how physically demanding the role was, noting that he was hurt several times during the film’s making.