Wrestlers on 'The Wrestler'

Saturday

17Jan2009

Saturday, January 17, 2009 at 8:00AM

I saw this over at Slashfilm yesterday and didn't have a chance to post it then, but it's actually better weekend viewing anyway, because it might take 20 minutes of your time or so.

It's also a really good fit for what we've been doing in awards season already, which is presenting some roundtable interviews about some of last year's best movies featuring 2008's most celebrated talents. This one is a little different. Rather than hearing from Darren Aronofsky or his cast for The Wrestler - Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, and Evan Rachel Wood - Fox Searchlight is talking to five hardened veterans of the squared circle.

Between them, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, Greg "The Hammer" Valentine, Lex Luger, Diamond Dallas Page, and Brutus Beefcake have roughly 150 years of wrestling experience. Through cultural osmosis, any child of the 80s is likely to have heard the name Roddy Piper. He was the key villain in the mid-80s Hulkamania phase of what was then the WWF. He also starred in They Live, giving us the all-time classic line, "I came here to kick ass and chew bubblegum...and I'm all out of bubblegum."

The mileage can clearly be seen and heard on these guys, and in these five interviews, they talk about the aspects of professional wrestling that Aronofsky and Rourke get so right.

Colin Boyd |

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Reader Comments (1)

Fantastic! My favorite movie of the year.

Saturday, January 17, 2009 |

Christian Avila

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