Time For The Acting Of Mickey Rourke…
MIckey Rourke is a preciously, deep actor… In his first feature film, he acted in just a few scenes…and, did more than “hold his own”.
I remember being vexed. When I left the theater, that night, I remember wondered how such a quiet actor, with regular appearance, in a regular kind of role, could stand out so very much.
The movie was “Body Heat”, and it starred magnificent actor, William Hurt; and, throughout, the blazing fire of actor, Kathleen Turner.
And, still, there were those scenes with Mickey Rourke.
I also can tell you this…”Body Heat” altogether, was a solidly-done movie.. it’s not the kind of film that you’d think an actor, with two little scenes, without any big dramatic moments, that weren’t central to a juicy plot… …could shine through as a powerful talent…embed himself into Hollywood…and go on to starring roles, from it, right away.
Here’s a clip from that movie, but before you watch it, you need to know that because it’s piece-d outside of the entire film, you’ve nothing to compare it to. So it may lose some punch, I’m not sure. (I wouldn’t know, because years later, I still am impressed…from way back then, and I can feel it all down to the pit of my stomach.)
Actor Rourke, during Rumblefish
He’s the real deal, with a velvet voice that never needs to raise an octave or a decibel, in any scene…yet he can play any emotion, or a string of ‘em… like an orchestra plays Bach. And he isn’t even trying. (No, it doesn’t just look that way…)
He’s got-it-goin-on; he’s got it all going on…way deep inside.
And, we as the audience, know it. We get it. We connect to it. On a whole other plane. Under Mickey’s quiet control.
He’s tough, and that’s why he can act in a film scene with Robert DeNiro… in a not-so-great script, and equally shine. Hold his own, and why is that extra special here…?
…Because DeNiro isn’t playing just a man, and he isn’t just DeNiro in his power-prime…it’s Robert DeNiro is playing the LUCIFER, the DEVIL! The nails, the ring, the identity revelation, and, I say it again: It’s DE NIRO!
Uh…Any other actor would simply disappear in this scene, with any one of the above, and no one would notice…Exception: Mickey Rourke.
I’ll bet that when Mickey Rourke was a little schoolboy, and daily attendance was called, he didn’t even have to say “present”, or “here”. His teacher knew it, already.
Mickey Rourke has “presence”…
Watch him in this cameo, (alongside, another actor with presence: Jack Nicholson)…in the movie, ” The Pledge”…
People have asked me, how do you know when something’s good, Dana?
::.One way, is to watch the acting, without the sound.::
Great acting exists without the dialogue. Sometimes, in spite of the dialogue; and, certainly, isn’t led by it.
In this scene, from “Rumblefish” (overdubbed in a foreign language…) is interesting, because Mickey doesn’t really have any lines.
Additionally, he’s “downstage“, and two other– magnetic– actors, are “upstage”; young Matt Dillon, and Dennis Hopper. …Just by nature of position, they should be watched; …and they have all the lines! Mostly, they are in the light!
Francis Ford Coppola made “Rumblefish”, a little over a week after he finished directing his previous film; and there was no script. It was just a novel. Most scenes of this movie were created by improv, by the actors on set, in front of the camera.
What kind of confidence, does that show, in an actor? Mickey Rourke surely is aware that he is being upstaged (it’s right there, in the physical blocking); and he does nothing to alter it…knows he is in one of the highest emotional scenes of the film, and he does nothing to try to get some dialogue in.
It’s improvisation…He certainly could, at any time, alter any of it.
This type of scene, in a script, is called a “turning point”, in the story. Mickey Rourke has plenty of acting experience, by this job. So, he knows all about that stuff…
He’s doesn’t seem to be trying to do anything at all. He isn’t*.
He isn’t trying to “act”, he isn’t trying to get attention, he isn’t trying to be in the light, he doesn’t even seem to notice if he is in the scene.*
Because he knows he can.
He knows his craft.
He knows his abilities.
And he knows that an authentic inner life is the most potent gift that an actor can give, to a scene. To a script. To an audience.
It’s the highest of the high, for an actor…
It’s great writing that makes an audience an approving observer.
It’s actor’s “tricks” and bad-or-even-good pretending, that turn an audience, from observer to lofty critic.
The next step is when the audience becomes a passionate, emotional participant. Separation disappears.
That is when the actor or actors have a strong inner life.
There’s no acting, just experience. Same for the audience, it moves from the cerebral, to experiential.
More, on Rourke, coming up in the next post…
Best,
;-Dana
