Both Marisa Tomei and Mickey Rourke are receiving rave reviews for their performances in the dramatic film The Wrestler directed by Darren Aronofsky (The Fountain). The Wrestler picked up the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, earned a spot on the National Board of Review's Top 10 Films of 2008 list, and is being hailed as the movie that'll resurrect Rourke's career. And Tomei's supporting turn as a stripper who befriends an aging wrestler (played by Rourke) is being heralded as one of the best performances of her Oscar-winning career.
Marisa Tomei Interview
How much does the fact the character is a stripper weigh into the decision to take on a role? Did the part interest you and it didn't matter what she did for a living?Marisa Tomei: "Well it’s all of it – it’s the director, it’s the writing, and the particular challenges of whatever part it is going to be. And usually it’s the location and the weather too, but I had to scrap that for this one."
How heavily does that usually weigh into your decision?
Marisa Tomei: "I really avoid the cold as much as possible."
So if you get a script and it’s set in Alaska, that's a definite no?
Marisa Tomei: "Well Alaska’s an intriguing place. But, yes, cold for cold’s sake, no."
You're not going to do it. Darren Aronofsky's a very interesting director. How is he to work with from an actor's perspective?
Marisa Tomei: "He's really, really involved in all aspects. He is extremely invested and he makes himself very available. We went through the script line by line at some point. He’s involved with the costuming. He’s involved with the hair, everything."
I heard that Mickey Rourke actually did a lot of rewriting of his own lines. Is that true?
Marisa Tomei: "He did do rewriting. I don’t mean improv but rewriting. It only affected one of my scenes and yes, I didn't care for that rewrite at all."
I was going to ask you about how you feel when another actor changes lines.
Marisa Tomei: "I was very upset about it and I didn’t like it."
How do you handle that? You still have to go on with the project and you still have to do your part. You just do it?
Marisa Tomei: "Yes. I mean, I voiced my concerns and it was up to Darren."
Was it a dramatic change from what you had originally thought the scene was going to play out like?
Marisa Tomei: "Yes. It had to do with my character’s transitions and what I'm getting from him that is making my character decide that she's going to go forward with him or not."
And you voiced your opinions but there was nothing that could be done? It was, 'This is the way we're going to do it'?
Marisa Tomei: "Yeah, we didn't see it the same way in that instance."
Interesting. Do you normally change your lines when you're working on a project or are you pretty much a stick to the script type of person?
Marisa Tomei: "No. I mean you finesse them a little bit, but pretty much stick to the script."
You're not big into improv?
Marisa Tomei: "No. I mean if it’s called for, if it’s the style of the piece, then that's a welcome challenge. But a lot of times you can lose…Like that, you can lose like key emotional arcs and moments if you don’t have your eye on the big picture."
We don’t know that much about your character's story. We know she has a child and we know she's doesn’t always want to be stripping for a living. Did you develop more of a backstory to fill out her history?
Marisa Tomei: "I thought about all of that of course, how she grew up and how she got into it. And, personally, I think she likes what she's doing but she just has to get out of it at this point in her life."
It’s like an age thing rather than she wants to get away from it.
Marisa Tomei: "Yes, I think so."
Do you normally put together a detailed backstory on every character or how do you usually get into a role?
Marisa Tomei: "Yes. Yes, I do research if it’s a world that I don’t really know that much about or intuition, yes, character history, all of that."
And for playing a stripper, did you do anything special for that?
Marisa Tomei: "Well Darren had chosen somebody that he thought was like maybe somewhat similar to the character and she kind of, she helped a bit. In this case it was mostly meeting with a variety of women and hearing common threads and then hearing individual stories as well, but what were the things that linked them that could probably apply to her as well."
What did link them? What did you find was the real common thread?
Marisa Tomei: "Well, you know, bad father stories and a sense of empowerment once they started dancing. Also, addiction to performance. And not even so much the money, but even contemplating stopping would mean not performing so that would be extremely difficult for them to break because it’s a real high."
That’s something I never thought about before. Did you connect that with being a stripper before you talked to these women?
Marisa Tomei: "I don’t remember, actually. But I do remember feeling like, 'Wow, this is like a little Vaudeville act or something.' It’s a very tiny, little stage and you go out and you have your, you know, local crowd or sometimes you travel from place to place. There's some that travel. There was something kind of homespun about, it if it wasn't so lewd."
Did you enjoy playing that part of her character?
Marisa Tomei: "That was my favorite part."
Why?
Marisa Tomei: "Well, because it had no dialogue and physical expression, I really enjoy that whether even if it's in comedy, I like physical comedy. I like expressing myself through my body, so I like doing that in work. And it was also just so great to learn something new, to just learn the physical tricks and have that challenge in front of me. So that’s why I like that. Plus I liked all the costumes."
