No Hollywood comeback story is a one-man show. And Mickey Rourke has been generous with crediting others for his return to stardom in The Wrestler. One name you'll hear again if he wins the best-actor Oscar on Sunday: David Unger, his agent.
Seven years ago, in an empty coffee shop, the hulking actor and a few of his small dogs met with the young, hungry rep. Rourke was lucky to get even that meeting. His raucous past had destroyed practically every relationship left from his days as a heartthrob tough guy in the 1980s.
No one cared, except the 30-year-old newcomer. "I told him I was a young agent with a lot to prove. And I believed in him," says Unger, now 37. "I approached him from a place of immense respect. It showed him I was putting my belief in him completely. And I asked him to do the same."
The two make an unlikely team. Unger, with his crisp enunciation and impeccable style, looks like someone the brawny, weathered Rourke might beat up. It was Unger who had to do the fighting, though.
Skeptical colleagues at ICM asked him whether Rourke was worth the effort. But Unger was determined, building Rourke's resurgence by targeting younger directors. "For me he was James Dean or Marlon Brando," Unger says. "I was a fan. I grew up on films like Rumble Fish and Body Heat and Diner and 9½ Weeks. I knew if I appealed to filmmakers who were a part of my generation, they would feel the same way."
Unger would arrange meetings with the filmmakers, and Rourke would show up to charm them, mea-culpa over his past and insist he could be relied upon. "He wanted to be a movie star again," Unger says. "So he would just go and reintroduce himself, as would any young kid trying to make it in Hollywood."
Progress was slow but steady. "The best testimony is filmmakers working with him repeatedly," Unger says. Tony Scott cast him in a small part in Man on Fire, then a larger one in Domino. Robert Rodriguez signed him for a small role in Once Upon a Time in Mexico, then a major role in Sin City.
They had to fight harder for The Wrestler; though director Darren Aronofsky wanted Rourke, financiers preferred Nicolas Cage. "Nic has always been a huge supporter of Mickey's. It's testimony to the respect he has with his peers that he wasn't replaced," Unger says.
Now the big offers are coming in, and Rourke is in talks for a role in the next Iron Man. "This is just the beginning of this second act," Unger says.
He has Rourke's Golden Globe trophy, which the actor gave to him after the ceremony, but he also has the actor's friendship, which is strong currency in a town where clients are easily poached by rival agencies.
Rourke declined an interview this week after the death of Loki, his 18-year-old Chihuahua.
"This armor that he wears in his public persona is not who he really is," Unger says. "He has a gentle soul."
When Unger's parents' dog died, he says, Rourke got them another. "He did it without telling me; my mother had tears in her eyes," he says. "Of course, they named the dog Mickey."
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