Mickey Rourke testifies
The latest issue of Relevant magazine carries a fascinating story on Mickey Rourke, who has won several awards for his role as Randy “Ram” Robinson in The Wrestler. As a child, Rourke attended the Catholic Church until his parents split when he was six. At 17, he returned to the church but, although he often prayed, he didn’t walk the walk.
The defining moment of his life occurred in 1994, after his heroin-addicted wife Carre Otis was brutally raped. Putting a gun in his pocket, Rourke headed out to kill the rapist and then himself.
Yet inexplicably, he made a detour on his way to murder. Rourke felt compelled to go to church one last time. He entered one of New York City’s most famous churches—the Church of the Holy Cross near Times Square. There, racked with sorrow and doubt, he started to cry—and the parish pastor, Father Peter Colapietro, took notice.
“I reached a place in my life where living was living hard,” Rourke says. “I was at a crossroads. Because I was raised Catholic, I had issues with the dark side of life I was drifting in. I didn’t know this man, Father Peter. I just walked in his church one day, walked in the right door and met the right priest.
“I was ready to take care of business in a rather severe way and Father Peter talked me out of it,” Rourke continues. “It was gonna be more than a punch in the mouth, and the guy deserved more, but Father Peter gave me the rap about, ‘Where in the Bible does it say “Vengeance is mine, says Mickey Rourke”?’
Rourke gave his gun to Father Colapietro and left a note with St Jude, the patron saint of impossible causes. The priest told the actor that it wasn’t too late to change his way of living. The two have since become close friends.
The article also mentions that Evan Rachel Wood, who plays Ram Robinson’s estranged daughter, became reconciled to her own father through making the movie.
The Wrestler is not always easy to watch, focusing as it does on the brutal and seamy world of professional wrestling, but it is a very deeply moving film. Mickey Rourke deserves every accolade he has received.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u14BC9tBRAA[/youtube]