I Come From A Violent

I Spent So Long Studying Really Hard To Become A Fine Actor, But Threw It All Away Because I Got The Adulation And The Fame So Easily

Acting Was Never My First Choice As A Profession, But I Came To Terms With It When I Decided I Better Buckle Down And Be The Best I Can Be At It.

I Started To Shortcircuit Because I Had High Aspirations For The Film. I Never Told Anybody That.

When I Did Sean Penn’s Movie, I Think I Was Living In, Like, A $500-a-month Room, And Someone Called Me Up Or Bumped Into Me And Asked Me If I’d Come Up To Work For A Day. That Sort Of Got Me Going A Little Bit. But It Wasn’t Until Sin City [2005] That I Kind Of Got Back Into The Game.

I Tried To Change My Name For The Fights, But The Only Way They Could Pay Me Money Was If I Used My Own Name. I Wanted To Change My Name To, Like, Romeo Something-or-other, And They Said, "no, We Can't Do That. We've Got To Use Mickey Rourke." Because They Paid Me A Lot Of Money To Go Over To Europe And Asia To Fight.