"The Wrestler" has garnered huge award buzz for its comeback star Mickey Rourke, but Oscar-winner Marisa Tomei's turn as a stripper has earned her a Golden Globe nomination as well. Tomei plays Cassidy, the love interest of Rourke's Randy "The Ram" Robinson.
Tomei talked about the stripping aspect of the film with Premiere:
Could you talk about your research and talking to strippers?I talked to a bunch of different girls and a bunch of different dancers. It wasn't like I sat and had big interviews with them or anything; we just went out, had some drinks, went to a bunch of clubs, watched a lot of dances, got some dances, brought some guy friends with me, brought some girl friends with me... It's like anything, any subculture. You get in there, and it's all individuals.
You had a lot to do with the costuming and the design of her clothes and the tattoos.[There were] so many layers of having to find just the right thing because the script called for certain points where the Ram has to put money in my G-string, so I definitely had to be wearing a G-string -- I couldn't be wearing boy shorts. And I didn't really want to be topless in every single dance number because you wouldn't be anyway, because you start off with your bra on and even your little dress on sometimes, so I didn't see why I needed to do that, but there were certain things called for in the plot, and then I wanted to feel comfortable as her and I wanted it to be flattering...
The nipple rings were the most fun to settle on, actually.
Was that your idea or was that in the script?No, that was my idea... They were clip-on. They were stuck on with eyelash glue and then kind of pinched on. It hurt a little bit.
Read the whole Premiere interview.
See stills of Tomei dancing in "The Wrestler"