In an interview with Crave Online about his villain role in Immortals, Mickey Rourke talked about another villain he’s played, Ivan Vanko (Whiplash) in Iron Man 2. Specifically, Rourke talked about how most of his performance was cut out of the movie, and he’s not happy about it. He said the writer (Justin Theroux), director (Jon Favreau), and him worked on giving “other layers and colors” to the character, like the cockatoo above he demanded (and when Mickey Rourke demands a cockatoo, you give Mickey Rourke a damn cockatoo and just hope he wasn’t saying “a c-ck or two”). He says most of the character development they worked on was cut out of the movie because “Marvel just wanted a one-dimensional bad guy”. Tell us how you really feel, Mickey:
“If they want to make mindless comic book movies, then I don’t want to be a part of that. I don’t want to have to care so much and work so hard, and then fight them for intelligent reasoning, and just because they’re calling the shots they … You know, I didn’t work for three months on the accent and all the adjustments and go to Russia just so I could end up on the floor. Because that can make somebody say at the end of the day, oh f**k ’em, I’m just going to mail it in. But I’m not that kind of guy. I’m never going to mail it in. […] At the end of the day you’ve got some nerd with a pocketful of money calling the shots. You know, Favreau didn’t call the shots. I wish he would have. And Theroux, we worked together to bring layers to that character, so, you know, I fight for that any time I’m playing like a bad guy.” [CraveOnline]
So Mickey Rourke is dejected about a lack of character development in Iron Man 2? Yeah, well, join the club. At least he made money off it; I had to pay to be mildly disappointed by it. Could’ve spent that cash on a “cockatoo” if you know what I’m sayin’.
He really did go to Russia, by the way. Here’s some likely NSFW proof of his incredibly important research. Such dedication.
[Hat tip to Blastr.]