Springsteen wrote song for Rourke comeback

NEW YORK, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- U.S. actor Mickey Rourke says Bruce Springsteen penned a song for "The Wrestler" after Rourke wrote him a letter telling him how proud he was of the film.

Directed and produced by Darren Aronofsky, the big-screen drama co-stars Evan Rachel Wood and Marisa Tomei.

"The only reason I wrote Bruce Springsteen a letter was because after about six days, I knew something magical was happening on the movie," Rourke told reporters in New York this week. "Darren sort of brought me back to just really wanting to be the best thing I could be. Stuff started happening with Evan and then stuff made it personal with the speech at the end and the way Darren was shooting the movie and his direction, I felt this tremendous sense of pride and privilege to be associated with Darren and the people in this movie, and that's what gave me the gumption to write Bruce. I told him, 'We have no money, but we did it in New Jersey.'"

Rourke said Springsteen called him some time later after reading the script and told him, "I wrote you a little something."

"And then I heard it," the actor said of the song titled "The Wrestler," which Springsteen eventually recorded and gave the filmmakers for free. "I had to listen to it like 100 times. He really got it... The song sums up the whole character. He did me such an honor and such a favor."