Actors who don't look like you remember them looking like

[Deleted member 110072]

I think his acting performance simply overcame his jarring appearance in The Wrestler. After that Travolta / Cage-ish rebirth, he hung on for a few years in the same way with a comeback but I don't think the strange look helped him at all.

If he had just kept working out and aged mostly naturally, I think there would be all kinds of roles out there for him if he were interested and able to pick good projects from bad ones.

The look seems like its linked to most of his castings over the last 15 years or so, not just the look of course but something like The Wrestler obviously called for a grizzled looking casting, same with Sin CIty, Iroman 2, etc.

Most actors who have decent long careers do so by moving a bit more towards a certain character role and he certainly has that.

 

[BisexualMMA]

The look seems like its linked to most of his castings over the last 15 years or so, not just the look of course but something like The Wrestler obviously called for a grizzled looking casting, same with Sin CIty, Iroman 2, etc.

Most actors who have decent long careers do so by moving a bit more towards a certain character role and he certainly has that.

Yeah but did he get those roles because he can't play anything else anymore? He was in the game for roles like Bruiser in The Rainmaker before but that's pretty much off the table now.

I personally think the possibilities that were available for an older Mickey Rourke as originally projected - more roles as senior lawyer, stuff like politician or judge or colonel or police captain or something like Roy Scheider's role in the same film The Rainmaker - probably outweigh the niche you are saying he landed in. All of which were probably still available to him anyway, given that he played stuff like Barfly as a young man.

One would have also expected things like late career Richard Harris / Max Von Sydow type roles to have availed themselves as he became a truly old man. Now...I dunno.

 

[Deleted member 110072]

Yeah but did he get those roles because he can't play anything else anymore? He was in the game for roles like Bruiser in The Rainmaker before but that's pretty much off the table now.

I personally think the possibilities that were available for an older Mickey Rourke as originally projected - more roles as senior lawyer, stuff like politician or judge or colonel or police captain or something like Roy Scheider's role in the same film The Rainmaker - probably outweigh the niche you are saying he landed in. All of which were probably still available to him anyway, given that he played stuff like Barfly as a young man.

One would have also expected things like late career Richard Harris / Max Von Sydow type roles to have availed themselves as he became a truly old man. Now...I dunno.

All of those actors you mention did clearly become more typecast as they aged though, the reality is very few actors still play the everyman role as they get past 50. You could I think argue the "aged heavy" is actually a less populated niche than the "wise old authority figure" and I strongly suspect Rouke himself enjoys playing it more.

I think you could see Rouke was starting to lose the typical leading man roles before age/boxing/excess caught up with him, the 90's was the era of guys like Cruise and Will Smith, more straight laced types rather than Roukes always rather scuzzy persona.

 

[BisexualMMA]

All of those actors you mention did clearly become more typecast as they aged though, the reality is very few actors still play the everyman role as they get past 50. You could I think argue the "aged heavy" is actually a less populated niche than the "wise old authority figure" and I strongly suspect Rouke himself enjoys playing it more.

I think you could see Rouke was starting to lose the typical leading man roles before age/boxing/excess caught up with him, the 90's was the era of guys like Cruise and Will Smith, more straight laced types rather than Roukes always rather scuzzy persona.

Rourke's drifting away from the leading man A-list was an atypical path. He could have held onto it if he had chosen to and focused on his acting career.

Does he like playing aged heavy? Sure, I think so. He seemed to get a kick out of being just a muscley middle aged meanie in Double Team. But the whole thing about Bruiser in the Rainmaker is that he was a mentor, an academic and an old heavy. I can't buy him as a lawyer anymore.

Aged heavy vs. wise old authority figure...

Sure, I'll grant you that Richard Harris, Max Von Sydow and Anthony Hopkins all generally fell into the old grandpa or Dumbledore or old prisoner in Count of Monte Cristo type roles. But when you're 80 can you really play the aged heavy anymore anyway? Now you have to play a guy who looks old with a quieter voice and a slower rhythm. And these roles are less available and believable if you look more weird than old.

I can think of all kinds of roles that Mickey was on track to be able to play at this point in his life or not long ago. The Stuff Michael Douglas was doing some years ago like Traffic or Wonder Boys or A Perfect Murder or The Game or Ghost and the Darkness or The American President. It's not impossible to picture a typically aged Mickey Rourke in all of those movies. The guy from The Wrestler or the years that follows? I can't see him in any of those roles.

What else might have been on Mickey's table back at around age 50-60, if I can just pick movies and roles from the past anachronistically... Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven, James Caan in The Program, Al Pacino in The Devil's Advocate, Robert De Niro in Heat, some of the Brad Pitt roles of the last 10 years, etc.

 

[Deleted member 110072]

To be fair Rouke never had the status of people like Eastwood, Pacino or Bobby and Pitt looks about 15 years younger than he is.

I wouldnt say he was ever quite an A-lister but as I said I think tastes were moving away from the kind of roles he built his career on in the 80's, I suspect had Rouke focused on acting and kept his looks a bit better he'd have ended up in a lot of increasingly low rent erotic thrillers in the 90's.

Again I think his persona just didnt suit 90's Hollywood, it was the era of Cruise, Hanks, Smith, etc, wholesome male leads.

 

[BisexualMMA]

To be fair Rouke never had the status of people like Eastwood, Pacino or Bobby and Pitt looks about 15 years younger than he is.

I wouldnt say he was ever quite an A-lister but as I said I think tastes were moving away from the kind of roles he built his career on in the 80's, I suspect had Rouke focused on acting and kept his looks a bit better he'd have ended up in a lot of increasingly low rent erotic thrillers in the 90's.

Again I think his persona just didnt suit 90's Hollywood, it was the era of Cruise, Hanks, Smith, etc, wholesome male leads.

That may be, but had he kept a more normal appearance, I think Hollywood would have come around to him after the 90s much the way it did to Robert Downey Jr. He and Robert Downey Jr. were like the under the radar uncrowned kings of acting...agreed everywhere that they were phenomenally good actors...why weren't they just putting it all together?

Downey disappeared and came back as Iron Man.
Rouke disappeared and came back as The Wrestler.

Downey still had things like The Judge and Tropic Thunder and Zodiac and Sherlock Holmes available to branch into. I think some roles like these would have potentially been options for Rourke with different choices about his appearance.

 

[Prutfis]

Furlong was always a creepy looking dude, it worked for him as a kid before life kicked in but it was a very very short moment that it worked for him....its been a steady drop off since Detroit Rock City...

He has basically done 4 good movies. T2, Detroit rock city, American History X and Brainscan.

 

[BisexualMMA]

He has basically done 4 good movies. T2, Detroit rock city, American History X and Brainscan.

Pecker and Animal Factory were all right as well. He actually has a surprisingly somewhat respectable body of work when you look at it, but yeah he was done a long time ago.

How can you not like Animal Factory? Tom Arnold gives him the jackpot.

 

[Prutfis]

Pecker and Animal Factory were all right as well. He actually has a surprisingly somewhat respectable body of work when you look at it, but yeah he was done a long time ago.

How can you not like Animal Factory? Tom Arnold gives him the jackpot.

Never seen it