The Wrestler stars Mickey Rourket as Randy “the Ram” Robinson, a professional wrestler from the '80s who is forced to retire after a heart attack almost kills him. He now has a job at a deli and must deal with the notion of giving up his dream, and finding a new reason to live. Director Darren Aronofsky and Mickey Rourke talk about preparing for the role and what it was like to working together.

Q: Did you relate to “the Ram” at all?

Rourke: No, not at all. Just Kidding. I did a lot. I related to him quite a bit. That’s why I was very glad to have a director like Aronofsky, who could make me be there in the moment and accept the hopelessness of the character. He wanted all of me in the role, and he knew how to challenge me to get there. He gave me the right amount of respect and trust to open up and allow myself to give everything to him.

Q: How can the audience relate to the character?

Rourke: It’s interesting because we [Aronofsky and I] were having some conversations about Randy, and we were struggling [with] how to make a guy like this, who is lost everything he has loved in life, how do we make him likeable? His times up. What do we do with this guy, this lump. Who is going to look out for him? 

Q: How did you get in to shape for the movie?

Rourke: I just did push-ups. No, I trained for 6 months with my trainer, who really broke my ass. We had a time table to reach certain weights. He had me on the scale every other day. That regiment was really hard, pretty brutal. So by the time the movie started, the hard part was over. We also trained very hard to do the wrestling stuff. Darren brought in a really great stunt coordinator. He hired the right wrestlers who worked with me. I couldn’t have done it without the right team of people. You had the right personalities that were very supportive, that made me feel like I knew what I was doing.

Q: [To Aronofsky] This is very raw film, and some of your other films are so lush. How did you do that?

Aronofsky: It’s just very important to keep moving forward and challenge myself. The first three movies: Pie, Requiem for a Dream and The Fountain were very much a chapter in my life, and I wanted to do something different. This is a new point in my life; this just came out.

Q: How did you come in contact with the project?

Aronofsky: It was an idea I had after I graduated film school. I made a long list of ideas for projects, and one was called The Wrestler. Then, in about February 2002, me and producer Scott Franklin started working on ideas for it, but it took a few years to get it together. After that, we hired writer Rob Siegel, and that’s about the time Mickey Rourke emerged as the ideal lead character, so the script was basically written for him.

Q: What was it like working with Rourke?

Aronofsky: He is very tough and very changeling. But when you get to action, there’s no one better. He just surrenders and goes for it.

Q: The theme of the movie is letting go of your passions. When do you let go of your dreams?

Aronofsky: I’ve been travelling the country for the film, and I met a pastor in Dallas who said he started crying within the first few minutes of the film. He told me his congregation was shrinking because everyone wants a young preacher. He is an older man, and he told his wife he will keep preaching until there is no one left in the pews. I think everyone can relate to it. We all deal with faded glory and how we hold onto it.

Q: Do you think the film will be received positively?

Aronofsky: Let’s hope so. When we made the film, America was in a different place, and now Randy’s journey is potent for what’s going on in the country right now. But for us, it was really about individual characters and these people—who were performing in front of 50,000 [fans] ten years ago and now in front of only 200—and what that does to you.