Mickey Rourke Talks About Whiplash's Iron Man 2 Suit

Empire got the chance to talk to Mickey Rourke about his role as Tony Stark's new nemesis in the Marvel comic book sequel Iron Man 2.

"I'm having the time of my life!" he enthused about joining the Iron Man franchise. "It's been really brutal, because my Iron Man suit weighs 23lb. It's sort of a half-suit, with half my skin showing, with lots of Russian tattoos, because [Whiplash is just] out of a Russian-zone prison."

Rourke even visited the Butyrka prison as research for the role. The character is said to incorporate elements of Crimson Dynamo from the comics. I'm assuming that they did this in order to use Dynamo's Russian background to connect the character with Black Widow, who's also Russian. Iron Man 2 has just reached the half-way point of principal photography. The film will hit theaters on May 7th 2010.