Mickey Rourke is grateful for second chances, said Kevin Williamson in the Toronto Sun. After a rapid climb to stardom in the 1980s, Rourke blew up his career with years of drinking, angry outbursts, and erratic behavior, including a stint as a professional boxer that left his good looks ruined.
He spent much of the ’90s waiting for the phone to ring. “After seven years go by, you think, ‘Wow, I really f---ed up,’” says the actor, 59. “But then 10 years go by and you think they’re not going to let you in the door again,” he says. “I really thought I could turn it around in a year or two, but it just didn’t happen. I remember going to Sunset Boulevard and buying a pack of cigarettes, and some fat guy goes, ‘Hey, didn’t you used to be…?’ And he mentioned the wrong name.”
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