Mickey Rourke & Gareth Thomas
He perfected the aging professional wrestler who battled ill health to recapture his years past glory days, now Mickey Rourke is preparing to tackle another role in a man-to-man, aggressive, contact sport.
The sport is professional rugby where Rourke is to portray Welsh player Gareth Thomas who you may remember hit the headlines 12 months ago when he announced he was gay, a rare and brave thing to do for an athlete in such a sport. Sports Illustrated would later call him ‘the only openly gay male athlete’ and it’s hard to argue with that… can you name any openly gay players in football, rugby or any other team sport?
Rourke (58) met with Thomas (36) earlier this summer and a movie package is currently being put together.
There is of course a two decade and change age gap between them and Rourke is an All-American and clearly not Welsh and they look nothing alike but still, Rourke seems confident he can pull this off.
The actor reiterated his commitment to the movie on UK Talk Show Alan Carr Chatty Man this past Sunday…
I read the story. it’s one of the toughest, hardest sports in the world to play. They play with no pads. They play… it’s a really brutal sport. To be a man who plays rugby who is gay and to live with that secret for the amount of years that Gareth had, to perform at the high level that he performed at, it takes a lot of courage.
Sounds like an interesting role for Rourke and something of a passion project for him, and it’s very much a movie in the same mould as The Wrestler, a movie he was unlucky not to win the Best Actor Oscar for a few years ago. If he had been challenging in a year that didn’t include a stunning Sean Penn performance in Milk, he might have won it. And hey, as Penn showed in the year he beat him, playing a homosexual goes down well with the Academy…
Personally, given Rourke’s age difference with Thomas, perhaps he should be playing a fictional character ‘inspired’ by the Welsh player rather than an out-and-out biopic? That seems a little less complicated to get onto the big screen but either way, I hope this film gets made.
from Obsessed With Film
Just One Look... # 271
