Touchdown: Humble Mickey bounces back

It was a much more humble Mickey Rourke who accepted the best actor Golden Globe Award for his remarkable performance in the lead role in “The Wrestler,” beating out some heavy-duty competition. And it’s a more modest Rourke than we’ve ever seen doing interviews in advance of the Academy Awards, where many eyes will be on him in the same category. A contrite Rourke told CNN that he only had himself to blame for the myriad troubles he faced the last 20 years. “You lose your house, your wife, your career, your everything at one time,” he said. “You’ve got to look in the mirror and go ‘It's your fault.’” He could have gone the other way, with a ‘they done me wrong’ narrative that would have reeked of the old, egotistical, unreliable and self-destructive Rourke. But instead, he used his rebound to the podium of fame to demonstrate a more mature outlook. Nor was Rourke afraid to be brutally honest about his dark days. “Seeing your entourage leaving with everything they can carry,” he said. “And you're standing there in the dark with your thumb up your ass.” People sometimes forget that Rourke was one of the last actors to train with the legendary Lee Strasberg at the Actor's Studio in New York with the likes of Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken and Harvey Keitel. If you’ve never seen Rourke in the 1987 Barbet Schroeder movie “Barfly” with Faye Dunaway, you’ve missed one of the darker classics ever. Meantime, the media is giving Rourke the benefit of the doubt about his comeback, in fact some are openly cheering it on, because the man has been so honest and straightforward in his communications approach.