They have great strip clubs in Austin 
Onetime boxer Mickey Rourke was Hollywood's next big thing in the 80s. He made his mark with smouldering roles in Body Heat, Year Of The Dragon and 9½ Weeks to name but a few. Sadly he fell out of favour in the 90s and only recently resurfaced in the quirky drug drama Spun and Robert Rodriguez's Once Upon A Time In Mexico. That proved so much fun for Rodriguez that he hired Rourke yet again - this time as a vengeful streetfighter in his brutal film noir Sin City.
Why has it taken you so long to come back into the mainstream?
Yeah, I had some things I had to fix. It took me 14 years to do it, you know? But it was never really fun back in the day to work with directors who were a lot older and were like authoritarian and talking to you like that. I mean I had a problem with that. Always - with anybody who talks to me like that.
Is it different now?
Well, you know these young guys are fearless and glad to... Well, they don't give a f***. Like I say about Robert [Rodriguez]: Robert swims in water that nobody else has swum in and I respect that. And I like his cowboy hat.
While shooting your scenes, you were alone against a green screen most of the time. How did you find that?
Well, the most important thing is, I wasn't bored, because you know, most of the time I didn't know what I was doing! I was just listening to Robert and trusting him. Like when Robert would read some of the roles for the other actors, he does it quite well. You know, he directs, he holds the camera, he does the music and all of that.
Did you find the role of Marv physically very demanding, especially under all that makeup?
Doing physical or fighting scenes in movies is really the hardest part so wherever I could have the stunt guy do it, I'd prefer to have him do it. Some of it was nice, but in doing all that physical stuff, it becomes really very technical. It was all done on a soundstage and not that it's really that hot in Texas, but all that prosthetic makeup drains you. By the time it's lunch you're done.
How long did you spend in makeup every morning?
They all said you could do it in an hour and ten minutes, but I don't know who could do that in an hour and ten minutes. If I was there for an hour-and-a-half I'd see Robert's wife [producer Elizabeth Avellan] coming up by the trailer and I knew I was in trouble.
How do you keep yourself occupied in the makeup chair for all that time?
Well, they have great strip clubs in Austin, Texas so I would have my fan club... I would have the girls come up and we would, ah... talk.
Did you take any souvenirs away from the set?
Ah, I kept a pair of pants, you know? Trousers. I took home a pair of trousers.
Sin City is released in UK cinemas on Thursday 3rd June 2005.
