Mickey Rourke, on making his wrestling look “more real” (DB):
Tell me about the scene where your character, Ram, cuts his face to make the match look more real. I’ve heard you used a real razor and director Darren Aronofsky didn’t know you were going to do it.
Who told you that? Darren? He’s full of shit.
He told me the day he met me, he says, “Do you know what gigging is?” And I say, “No.” And he says, “It’s when [wrestlers] cut themselves with a razor.” And I’m thinking, “Whoa, that’s far out. I don’t know if I could cut myself if I’m not pissed off.”
He said, “I’m going to want you to go all the way with this stuff, even the gigging.”
But he never brought it up after that first conversation. Darren had no idea that I was going to do it, nor did he ask for me to do it. It really hurt because I wasn’t angry. It was really nice because all the real wrestlers in the dressing room gave me a standing ovation for gigging.
