Mickey Rourke On Letterman (1 Viewer)

Mickey Rourke was on Letterman the other night, and Dave brought up BARFLY.
Just a brief aside, but laced with profanity, and fairly funny, even if Mickey does seems a bit dismissive of Buk.
It comes in at the 9:26 point.

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Thanks, nice clip. It was interesting, and to hear Rourke say he didn't know much about Buk, is a bit weird. Seems to me, he researched Buk a bit, and spent some time with him to act in Barfly. So to say he doesn't know much about Buk? Weird.

On another note, I think that may be the first time I heard Buk referred to as Charlie, and it seems the censored words were both pussy. What a pussy, and chasing pussy?
 
He didn't get a haircut, they just removed the weave.

Bukowski called Mickey Rourke a pussy. You know, it isn't fair to expect Mickey Rourke to remember Bukowski with all the shit he's been through in the last 20 years. Plastic surgery alone probably wipes out a massive quantity of brain cells by itself.
 
Yeah, it just seems like calling him "Charlie" is his hollywood way of letting the audience know that was either close with him or it was a power thing (like calling your Doctor by his first name.)

He almost certainly did not call him "Charlie" to his face.

Mickey Rourke/good actor, sad little man

Bill

p.s. At least he did not bring his Chihuahua with him on stage. I'm sure that he has an employee who holds the dog while he is on a show... I'm sure that the guy's name is Robert, but he calls him Bobby, because, you know, he can....
 
I was surprised that Letterman was familiar with Bukowski, but he's got strange tastes.
(He likes Tom Waits, Zevon, and Beefheart, so he's hipper than you'd think.)
Mickey's so weird looking these days that he might be better suited to play Chinaski now than he was back then.
(Jack Hirschman called Buk "Charlie" on that City Lights podcast with Neeli Cherkovski promoting PORTIONS, and I remember Buk referring to himself that way in one of his poems, but, yeah, who knows what's going on in MR's head.)
 
I am sure Letterman is big fan of Bukowski. That's the way how I found out Bukowski died - he announced it on his show that exact day. I still remember it like it was yesterday :(
 
It's kinda ironic, but I watched the movie Rumble Fish last night, which is from 1982, and features Mickey Rourke. And today, after watching the clip of him on Letterman... what the hell happened to him, he barely looks like the same person who was in Rumble Fish. Too many times under the knife?
 
Yeah, it just seems like calling him "Charlie" is his hollywood way of letting the audience know that was either close with him or it was a power thing (like calling your Doctor by his first name.)

He almost certainly did not call him "Charlie" to his face.
....

Exactly, it struck me as strange. Like, he really didn't know anything about him, but most of the audience probably didn't either, so calling him Charlie was like insuating they were close. But when all is said and done, still counts as my fave Letterman moment. Well that and maybe Drew Barrymore flashing Davey boy!

p.s. I only remember Matt Dillon from Rumble Fish, had forgotten Rourke completely! But I have definitely loved Rourke in some of his roles.
 
The Crispin thing was great - unbeknownst to most people, he came back two nights later without his "Rubin" costume with short hair & a suit to apologize & say he did it "just to give people something to talk about" - but Harmony Korine's three appearances kill me.
(Tom Waits is always good with Dave too.)
Mickey's made some great movies over the years, but the plastic surgery definitely limits what he can do these days.
I think he fucked his face up boxing, and that's what started it, so at least he has some sort of medical excuse.
 
yeah, I remember seeing that Crispin Glover one when it happened. He was in the middle of shooting a strange movie called "Twister" and he was completely in character...

bill
 
Ltterman's old 12:30 NBC show was great. There were a hundred weird nights. Once they let the audience decide what kind of chair the guest would sit in and the show was done in front of a green screen so the audience could decide what the background would be. Letterman interviewed Sandra Bernhardt while she sat in a dentist's chair.

Another time they showed a rerun, but it was dubbed entirely into Spanish.

The main thing though, is he would actually interview the musicians who played, and not just for a couple of minutes. He had Iggy on there for 20 minutes talking, and once he had Peter Tosh on twice in one week, one one night talking to him for 2/3 of the show, and he and his band played four songs. That kind of stuff is unheard of now, and it was just one of the things that died when he moved to CBS/11:30.
 
I remember Letterman did a week of his shows from a hotel room. HST was one of the guests.

and I saw the Harvey Pekar episode that was never aired again. although at the time I had no idea who Pekar was. I remember thinking "Who's this grumpy asshole mouthing off to Dave?"

Letterman used to be something special.
 
The movie was "Rubin & Ed."
It's not widely available, but you can get it straight from the director online, and it's worth checking out if you like bizarre humor, or Mahler's Symphony No.1.
(Howard Hesseman's in it too, as well as a dead cat.)

http://www.echocave.net/rubin_ed.html

Twister came out in 1987:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096321/

The bonus is that William Burroughs is in this movie too.

I have not seen Rubin & Ed, but the character of HOWDY in Twister is dead on the way that he acted on Letterman. Rubin & Ed came out in 1992. The Letterman episode was from 1987, and Rubin and Ed was shot before that. SO you are right, it is Rubin, but he seems to have a few roles where he plays a similar character...

Oh, here's the Letterman clip. It is amusing.

 
Burroughs' cameo is the best part of TWISTER.
He's on a firing range & tells a story about a guy that got kicked in the head by a horse.
Crispin was supposedly trying to get funding for RUBIN & ED when he went on Letterman dressed like that.
(The pants, the glasses, the shoes, and wig are all Rubin Farr's costume.)
That movie really deserves wider distribution.
I watched an old VHS copy recently and was doubled over with laughter.
Here's a lo-fi copy of the trailer:

 
Rumble Fish

p.s. I only remember Matt Dillon from Rumble Fish, had forgotten Rourke completely!

I've seen Rumble Fish yesterday for the first time. As a movie it's a bit too much 'Novelle Vague' for my tastes.

But it's so cute to see 2 future Henry-Chinaski-characters in a very early movie together!

Dillon-Rourke_1983.JPG


I'm just watching mister rourke in Rumble Fish, and he looks okay to me. Actually so does mister dillon.
Who next to play Bukowski - nicolas cage ???

Ha! Not until now I got the whole joke in that post!

Dillon-Cage_1983.JPG


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