Once considered among Hollywood's top actors, he reigned in the 1980s, steaming up the screen with "91/2 Weeks" and the controversial "Angel Heart" where he had sex scenes with a nude Lisa Bonet who was a minor at the time.  Bill Cosby led an outcry against the film, since Lisa had just gotten of the family-oriented "Cosby" TV sitcom, where she played one of his daughters.

 

When Mickey's career hit the skids, he returned to boxing, one of his earlier jobs.  Images of Mickey in the ring, bloodied, were sad illustrations of what had become of the fine actor, who many had thought would go to lead a long, thriving and distinguished career as a thespian.  Instead, the whole world saw parodies of the person.

 

Today, many believe that Mickey has had facial plastic surgery.  They lament that the handsome, expressive face has become puffy.  Not a few feel that Mickey should have just allowed nature to take its course.

 

In "Domino" directed by Tony Scott ("Top Gun," "Enemy of the State"), Mickey plays Ed, leader of a band of modern day bounty hunters (they do exist, running down fugitives for a price).

 

Kiera Knightley plays the title role loosely based on the true-life character Domino Harvey.  Not even the most imaginative screenplay could have concocted the twists and turns of the this real Domino's life.

 

The daughter of English actor Laurence Harvey, Domino had a privileged upbringing.  She attended boarding school in England and move to Beverly Hills in her teens.  She was a ramp model in Paris.  But Domino was restless.  While she was down and out in LA, she found her true calling -- as a bounty hunter.

 

Venezuelan actor Edgar Ramirez makes an impact in this movie as Choco, who joins Domino and Ed in tracking down and capturing thugs and criminals who have jumped bail.

 

Mickey's girlfriend, a brunette bombshell, sat in the back of the hotel meeting room as he answered questions with characteristic humor and candor.  Below are excerpts of our press con with cursing, chain-smoking actor.

 

You seem at ease in the movie.  Does the world of bounty hunters appeal to you?
I was on medication [laughter].  No, it was mainly interesting because the director was Tony Scott.  I wouldn't have made this particular movie if Tony wasn't the director.  It would have been like a macho formula movie.  That wouldn't have interested me because (then) it would be boring.

You're a father figure of sorts.
More like a big brother, yeah.

Do your regret not having children?
No. I have seven dogs.  Well, one passed away two weeks ago.  I have six dogs left.  They're my kids.  If I couldn't guarantee that I would always be there for kids, then I wouldn?t bring something into the world.  I never really wanted to have children because I never wanted to do to them what happened to me because that was such a nightmare (his step-dad, said to be a strict disciplinarian, reportedly slapped his kids around).

 

You've been photographed with this small dog.  What are the names and breed of your other dogs?
Where's the dog?  He was supposed to be here an hour ago.  He's late.  He's coming with me to work in Canada on Friday so he's getting the papers today.  My dogs are of different breeds -- Chihuahua, Pug and Mini-Eskimo. Their names are Loki, Chocolate, Ruby Baby, Bella Loca, Jaws and La Negra.

 

Can you talk about Edgar Ramirez, who makes such an impact in this movie?
In the beginning, they were thinking of somebody else doing the role, some gringo flavor of the month Hollywood guy [laughter].  I grew up with Latin people in Florida and there's no way that a gringo can play the part.  Unless you get Al Pacino -- but somebody like him comes around only every 30 years.  To do that kind of acting, you're better off getting a Latin actor instead of listening to someone with a bad accent.  So I'm very glad that they hired Edgar.  I saw a movie that Edgar did.  I said to Tony you've got to hire this fucking guy.  You can't put this white guy in there [laughter].  As soon as Edgar walked into the room, I liked him.  I said to Tony, come one, please.

 

Your character has a little bit of an underlying relationship or an attraction to Keira's character.  Are you as shy as your character?
I was really more in love with Edgar's character then Keira's [laughter].  You didn't know there was something going on between Ed and Choco?  You didn't see that?

No, I didn't.
Well, you've got to watch the movie again. I  mean, he's a good-looking man.

 

What was so challenging about this role?
I rolled out of bed and said the lines.  What took a bit of effort was to communicate with Tony that I don't want to make Ed just this one-dimensional thug who is a bounty hunter.  I want him to have layers.  I wanted my character to have a funny bone, be curious or be confused -- so it's always challenging that way.

 

It's great to see you back on the screen.  What happened...and how are you a different man?
What was the I came from the street and when you make it, you start making money in this business.
You're in this town, you beat on your chest a little bit and think, you're never going to disappear and then one day, you fall on your ass and it takes 14 years to pick your ass back up.  It's a rude awakening because when you fuck up in this town, it's very easy for people to go like this (he made a dismissive wave with his hand). That's the nature of people to do that.  This is a town built on envy.  When you fall, you don't always get a second chance. I worked very hard to get a second chance.  I thought I would get it in a year or two or three.  But it took over 10 years so it has been a very humbling experience.  I don't feel that I deserve to be back more than I feel grateful to have an opportunity for a second chance.  I don't believe in luck because I worked real hard at it.  I felt the years go by because when you fall from grace the way I have, you live in shame.  It's very embarrassing to be considered finished, washed up or broken man.  When your return doesn't happen in one, two, three, four, five, six years, you start to believe it's over too.

It's interesting to hear you talk about your so-called disappearance because it sounds as if you were mystified about why you couldn't go back that fast while the media made it seem that you left the business in a mystery.
It was both.  It was mainly my fault, though.  I was good at blaming someone or something else.  It's very easy to go "It's this motherfucker's fault."  When I had to look in the mirror one day, I realized that it wasn't just my career that I lost.  I lost a lot of things along the way.  I realized it was me, not everybody else and it was from being young, arrogant, irresponsible and angry -- that's not a bad cocktail.  I mean, that is a bad cocktail [laughter] especially when it goes on for 14 years.

So what has changed?
One day when you lose everything and you look around and you go fuck the guy in the mirror, you change everything -- the people you have around you, what you do everyday.  The change is very hard especially if you don't want to change.  It's a lonely dark road until you get any daylight. 

Can you be more specific?
I didn't have any rules for myself before.  As soon as my balls dropped, there were no rules for me, which was wrong.  It was just an angry, stupid way of how I looked at my life -- no happy endings there.  What changed is my taking responsibility for the consequences of when, let's say, my fuse is too short and all hell breaks loose.  You're going to read about it the next day and it's going to be embarrassing.  And there are going to be consequences with who might want to hire me for a job.  I never used to thing about any of that stuff.

When did you change?
When I sat down in my house as they were taking away the furniture and everybody, everything was gone except me and the dog.  Yeah [laughter].

What are you biggest regrets then?
Every fucking thing.  I made 10 million mistakes so if I can't say that I made a million mistakes and that I have a million regrets, then I'm a piece of shit.  I have a lot of regrets.  I did a lot of stupid crap.  I looked at Keira -- she's 20 years old and she was in the make-up trailer reading a book, being very proper, knowing her lines and she was on time.  I went, why the fuck couldn't I do that?  That's a regret.  It's not a big one but well, it is a big one.

So do you still have dreams?
Just nightmares, yeah.

 

With you admission of all your mistakes and ups and downs, what advice can you give to someone like Robert Downey Jr. who is back?
He's been around long enough.  He should know better.  I think he's working now. He's doing all right now, I heard. I just wish him luck.  You know, stay off the pipe, brother.

 

You said that you used to be very angry but....
No, but I'm still angry.  I am just not saying it.

So these days, what makes you angry and when you do, how do your restrain yourself?
[joking] I have a dog about this big and I kick him in the ass really hard [laughter].
I said too much already.  I am just going along for the ride now, just watching and listening, and no flapping my wings too much because it's nice to be back to work.  I don't want to rock the boat anymore.  My ass is very sore. I have been sitting on it for a long time.

 

And how do you deal with fame now?
The only thing I could say is, people come up to me in the last 6 months and they go, "Oh you're back."  I look at them like, you don't know where the fuck I've been for 14 years.  You don't know what it's like when you've been gone so long that it doesn't feel like you're back  You still feel like you're in the garbage can so it's like, it's nice to have the lid off but you can still smell the shit.

But don't you feel that this suffering makes you a better actor?
Yeah, sometimes you could be intelligent about it and not put yourself in a place where you have to suffer so much.

So you still struggle everyday?
The old demon is still there.  I have to keep him quiet.

 

We are glad you came to this interview because we hadn't seen you in a long time.
Well, nobody wanted to talk to me for 14 years so I'm glad to be here.