Spring Break
Cigar Exclusive: Darren Aronofsky and Marisa Tomei discuss "The Wrestler"
Caity Cudworth
Issue date: 12/9/08 Section: Entertainment
12/09/08 - Careers involving extravagant amounts of steroids, spandex, and fake blood are generally pretty short lived- and pro-wrestling is no exception.
The bizarre glory that comes courtesy of pretending to pummel oversized men in a strange, staged spectacle of aggression is intense- and it's fleeting. And once you get too old to tug on the old spandex pants and bash plywood planks over the heads of your caped opponents- well, it's hard to make a comeback.
The question of what, exactly, one does when that sideshow glory dissolves into a fog of health problems, dead-end jobs, and barely-requited romances is at the center of director Darren Aronofsky's (Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain) latest stunner, The Wrestler (slated for wide release December 26).
Down-and-out champ Randy "The Ram" Robinson, played by a surprisingly superb Mickey Rourke, takes more hits out in the real world than he does in the ring: his daughter Stephany severs ties, he clumsily courts an aging stripper who goes by the stage name "Cassidy" (played by an immensely likable Marisa Tomei), he can barely afford the rent on his trailer, and he spends his free time trekking across the slummier parts of New Jersey to perform in rec halls and school gyms, clinging to the small scraps of affectation that wrestling still affords him.
In interview with the Cigar, Marisa Tomei remarked that The Wrestler is "an athlete's story, and an artist's story too. It's about something that you love and kind of built your life around- the business part of that betraying you or your body betraying you."
"Transitions, identity- absolutely- and artistry too…that was something that Darren [Aronofsky] talked about early on."
Aronofsky, for his part, pared it down even more, saying: "It's really about a guy who wants to be loved."
The character of Randy is "a combination of a lot of guys," according to Aronofsky- who was also kind enough to sit down and discuss the film. "The sad thing is the more of these guys we met, the more clichés we ran into because so many of their lives ended up in a similar way."
The bizarre glory that comes courtesy of pretending to pummel oversized men in a strange, staged spectacle of aggression is intense- and it's fleeting. And once you get too old to tug on the old spandex pants and bash plywood planks over the heads of your caped opponents- well, it's hard to make a comeback.
The question of what, exactly, one does when that sideshow glory dissolves into a fog of health problems, dead-end jobs, and barely-requited romances is at the center of director Darren Aronofsky's (Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain) latest stunner, The Wrestler (slated for wide release December 26).
Down-and-out champ Randy "The Ram" Robinson, played by a surprisingly superb Mickey Rourke, takes more hits out in the real world than he does in the ring: his daughter Stephany severs ties, he clumsily courts an aging stripper who goes by the stage name "Cassidy" (played by an immensely likable Marisa Tomei), he can barely afford the rent on his trailer, and he spends his free time trekking across the slummier parts of New Jersey to perform in rec halls and school gyms, clinging to the small scraps of affectation that wrestling still affords him.
In interview with the Cigar, Marisa Tomei remarked that The Wrestler is "an athlete's story, and an artist's story too. It's about something that you love and kind of built your life around- the business part of that betraying you or your body betraying you."
"Transitions, identity- absolutely- and artistry too…that was something that Darren [Aronofsky] talked about early on."
Aronofsky, for his part, pared it down even more, saying: "It's really about a guy who wants to be loved."
The character of Randy is "a combination of a lot of guys," according to Aronofsky- who was also kind enough to sit down and discuss the film. "The sad thing is the more of these guys we met, the more clichés we ran into because so many of their lives ended up in a similar way."
