The Circuit

After a Venice film fest win and a quick sell in Toronto, Darren Aronofsky unspooled "The Wrestler" to press on U.S. soil at the New York Film Festival.  The pic closes the 46th NYFF on October 12. 

Aronofsky said this U.S. preem kicks off a whirlwind tour as he and Fox Searchlight look to sell the film to auds and awards voters before its December 19 release. 

The film's lead, Mickey Rourke, is their focus.  Rourke plays a down-on-his-luck wrestler, looking for a comeback.

Talking to press after a packed screening, Rourke fidgeted with an unlit stogie as he remembered the exhaustive prep.  "Darren had ring put up in his office and every day would make me go to wrestling practice.  At first I didn't get it," said Rourke.  "In boxing you're taught to hide everything.  In wrestling you have to show it."

Moderated by fest programmer Richard Pena, Rourke and Aronofsky were joined by the film's producer Scott Franklin and co-star Marisa Tomei, who plays a stripper in the film.  "Darren didn't have a strip pole in his office for me," she added.

"Wrestling and boxing are like ping pong and rugby.  Two totally different sports," Rourke continued.  "I got hurt more in three months of wrestling than sixteen years of boxing.  I think I had three MRIs in two months.  Darren would screech at me, 'You're only giving me 50 percent!'  I'd tell him, 'I can't move, brother!'" 

"I can honestly say this is the best and the hardest movie I ever made," said Rourke.  "I was so goddamn thankful the day we were done."

"The whole attitude was to try to stick us in as many real situations as much as possible," said Aronofsky.  "We had real wrestling promotions, real fans.  Mickey wrestled a real wrestler, not a stuntman.  There was a financial reason for that, but that wasn't the motivation.  It was to try to create as much reality as possible."

Regarding the film's scribe, Rob Siegel, Aronofsky said he liked the former Onion editor's dark humor and drama.  "When I started to talk to him it was clear he understood.  There was a lot of development.  About 30 drafts.  A lot of incarnations to get there."

Franklin said financing was challenging since many doubted Mickey's comeback.  France's Wild Bunch believed in it, but came up short in how much they were willing to spend. 

"As we got closer the Euro kept rising and the dollar kept plummeting," remembered Franklin.  "So they were able to finance for the original amount, which by then was six or seven hundred thousand dollars more."  They prepped the 35 day shoot in two quick months, hoping the dollar would stay down.

The topic of comeback seemed to humble Rourke, and further blurred the lines between him and the film's character, Randy "The Ram" Robinson. 

"If I knew that it would take 15 years to get back into the saddle, I would have done things differently," Rourke offered pensively.  "I'm trying to do things differently this time around, trying to be responsible, trying to be a professional, to be consistent.  Those are things that weren't in my vocabulary back then.  I realized I had to change or blow my fucking brains out. You had to change, move on with life, or else you were a piece of shit.  I thought it was a weakness ot change.  I didn't want to until I lost everything… It took me 16 years out of the game.  But it's nice because I get to come back work with these people here."

Rourke trailed off as he began to choke up.  Pena took over, closing the press conference with an arm on Rourke's shoulder, "Anyone who loves film is very grateful that you are here."