A while back, I brought you the news that Mickey Rourke was interested in playing openly gay Welsh rugby player Gareth Thomas. Now comes word from his agent that Rourke is so serious about it that he’s considering having his two front teeth removed. Jesus, gay rugby sounds like a rough sport.
Wales on Sunday now says the Wrestler star is going to take out his teeth – as Thomas doesn’t have any front chompers – and wants to shoot the picture in Wales.
Thomas’ agent Emanuele Palladino told Wales on Sunday that Rourke wanted to be as faithful as possible.
He said, ‘Mickey wants to film everything in Wales, although it is early days.
‘He really wants to throw himself into Welsh and rugby and really learn as quickly as he can. He’ll learn Welsh I think, obviously where it is relevant as well.
‘He is going to get rid of his two front teeth and stuff – he will be taking them out.
‘Mickey intends to get as close to the character as he can, as he thinks it is a great story.’ [inmovies.ca]
Huh, I always thought Wales was closed on Sundays. Anyway, the difficulty here isn’t so much that Mickey Rourke will have to remove his teeth or learn Welsh, it’s more that Gareth Thomas is a 36-year-old professional athlete and Mickey Rourke is a clayfaced, 58-year-old, tiny-dog-loving party animal. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. In fact, more that I think about it, Gareth Thomas should be doing a biopic about Mickey Rourke.