He's back in the ring

The eyes are the same. Say what you will about Mickey Rourke's face -- ravaged by time, battered by boxing and altered by who knows what else -- but his eyes haven't changed. They still have the live-wire flash, moving from cocky charm to wounded pride to raw pain in an instant. Watching those eyes brings to mind the Mickey Rourke who once was, the guy from "Diner" and "The Pope of Greenwich Village" and "Year of the Dragon," the Brando of the early '80s.

In "The Wrestler," which opens today, Rourke makes what is likely his last best go at regaining the respect and acclaim he walked away from to pursue a boxing career, a last shot at a comeback after years of self-destructive behavior and forgettable movies. Rourke's role as a once top-billed professional wrestler now struggling even for gigs in high school gymnasiums and grappling with age, injuries and personal demons was tailored specifically to the actor.

"People have asked me for a long time, what's the best movie you ever made?" Rourke says during a recent interview in Los Angeles. "And I'd say, 'I haven't made it yet.' Somebody asks me now, I say, 'The Wrestler.' "

Director Darren Aronofsky, himself making a comeback of sorts following the tortured "The Fountain," conceived the role for Rourke, even though the two had never met. Perhaps mutually wary of the other's reputation, their first meeting involved a few ground rules.

"We met at a restaurant for lunch and he told me how I'd screwed up my career for 15 years," Rourke says, "and I agreed with him. He said he had a project he'd like to do with me but he couldn't raise any money because of the state of my career. He said, 'If I work with you, you have to do everything I say and you can never disrespect me on the set. And I can't pay you.' And I thought, 'And he's got [guts] too. This is my kind of guy.'

"And I could see, and this scared me a little, I knew he knew the kind of actor I am, and I also knew from when I read the material, this guy's going to want me to visit some really dark, painful places. Then he asked me if I knew anything about gigging, when the wrestlers would take a razor blade and cut themselves. He said, 'I'm gonna want your blood.' "

Following months of weight training and learning the ins-and-outs of wrestling, Rourke had added an extra 46 pounds of muscle to his already imposing frame in preparation for the part of Randy "The Ram" Robinson. Once filming started, Aronofsky lived up to his promises, pushing Rourke on-set during the shoot.