Wrestling 365 sent out the following:
In an interview with Alfonso Marimon & Jon Curry of Wrestling 365 Radio, Evan Ginzburg, host of Legends TV and associate producer of Oscar-nominated movie “The Wrestler” discussed his work on the movie, how he got a part in the movie and more.
Highlights of the interview are below:
On his work as associate producer on The Wrestler: “I was the Associate Producer on The Wrestler and basically, I was the wrestling guy. I did 6 casting calls with tons of wrestlers like Ron Killings and Romeo Roselli. I brought in The Necro Butcher and many of the Ring of Honor guys you see and a lot of the indy guys were brought in through casting calls that I did. I also brought in Mickey Rourke’s stunt double, his trainer and it was one of the great experiences of my life. It’s something we’re all very proud of. None of us got rich from it, but we’re richer from doing it if that makes any sense.”
On how he landed a role in the movie: “It’s an interesting story behind that. I was on set that day and Darren Aronofsky gets the smirk and all of a sudden he goes, “Evan, come here” and I’m like “okay” and next thing I know he’s micing me and he goes, walk the room, ask Mickey for an autograph and a polaroid and go up to him and laugh. The second director comes over with a script and all the script says is “Thank you, thank you for the autograph”, so Mickey gets in my ear and what he says is just improv it. He thinks I’m an actor, I’m not an actor, so I’m saying to him what I would say to any legend, you know, I saw you at the Garden, I loved you as a kid, can I have your autograph, so he says to me, “What’s your name?” and I’m thinking and I go “Evan”, because there was no script. It’s so surreal, I’m playing myself in a fictional movie. It was a great experience though. Aranofsky walked over to me and starts pounding me on the chest saying “That was great, that was great” and I said “thanks”. I was scared out of my mind, there were 125 people on set, cameras everywhere and I’m acting with Mickey Rourke.”
On struggling for funds and how authentic they wanted the film to be: “We were struggling at the time, Mickey was not a box office commodity anymore. We asked for $18 million for the budget, we got $6 million, which is nothing, nothing, I mean there are guys who get $6 million just in salary. It was done from the heart and to Darren’s credit, he would ask me, he would ask Afa, he would ask the wrestlers, is this authentic, he really wanted to do it right, for example, in the original script, the scene where Mickey is blading himself, everybody’s watching like “Oh my God, he’s going to blade himself” and I’m like “Darren, that would never happen, nobody would care and it’s like business as usual”, so they took that out of the script. He really wanted it to ring true, he really did.
Evan also discussed if Mickey Rourke’s appearance at WrestleMania may have hampered his chances of an Oscar, his thoughts on the current wrestling product, the possibility of “The Wrestler 2” and much more.
The interview is available in full at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/365network/2014/03/02/wrestling-365-at-6pme-this-sunday-night-feat-sonny-onoo-and-evan-ginzburg.
