I would go in on Sundays with one of Afa's younger guys and not tell [director] Darren Aronofsky ... I wanted to nail three or four moves that no one [but the pros] could do but I got so hurt. I had three MRIs in two months.
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It's a movie I'm very proud of ... It's the best movie I've ever made, the hardest movie I've ever made. I think Darren Aronofsky is one of the best directors I've ever worked with. I'd put him right up there with [Michael] Cimino, [Francis Ford] Coppola and Adrian Lyne.
Darren [Aronofsky], because he decided to shoot the movie in a sort of objective documentary-style way hand-held the whole movie, he said, 'You have to do your own stunts,' ... So, three and a half/four months of working with these wrestling people, I didn’t want to be in there for like two months. For about two months the back was hurt so it was torture. Then after about the third I started feeling better and I was getting it. I wasn’t moving like a prize fighter. I was understanding the way a wrestler moves. It's all exposed instead of closed up.
He helped me a lot, which was good because my very first day I was naked and doing a lap dance!