Mickey Rourke on Tom Cruise: “He's been playing the same role for 35 years. I have no respect for him”

Mickey Rourke (New York, 69 years old) not only delivers blows in films like

.

Just two years ago, the hook was taken by Robert De Niro, whom he called "crybaby" and "bastard" through his Instagram account.

Now it has been the turn of Tom Cruise (New York, 60 years old), who is in luck thanks to the success of

the sequel to

that has become

one of the greatest cinematographic phenomena of recent years after exceeding one billion dollars in grosses.

Rourke doesn't care about all this.

During an appearance on the British show

, the

star called Tom Cruise "irrelevant" when questioned by Morgan himself about the success of the sequel.

Rourke added: “[The box office success] doesn't mean shit to me.

“[Tom Cruise] has been doing the same role for 35 years.

I have no respect for him.

I don't care about money or power.

I care... when I see Al Pacino or Christopher Walken work, or De Niro's early work and Richard Harris and Ray Winstone, that's the kind of actor I want to be."

This is one of the most remembered and parodied scenes in 1980s cinema.

In 1983, at just 21 years old, Tom Cruise rose to worldwide fame with 'Risky Business'.

It was not his debut in the cinema (he had previously participated in 'Taps' with another young promise of the time, Sean Penn), but this was the film that would consecrate him as a youth idol.

The scene in which he dances in his shirt and underpants, to the rhythm of Bob Seger's 'Old Time Rock', went down in film history on its own merits.

The choreography was improvised by the actor, who could have made gold (even more so) if he patented it.

The scene has been imitated and parodied ad nauseam, even by Cruise himself.IFTN (Cordon Press)

"Your ego writes checks that your pocket can't pay."

That phrase that Captain Tom Stinger Jordan would pronounce in 'Top Gun' (1986) and that was addressed to the rebellious and arrogant pilot Pete Mitchell Maverick, played by a young Tom Cruise, seems to have become a premonitory message.

Now, 36 years later, the sequel has broken the $1 billion mark in worldwide box office.

'Top Gun: Maverick', directed by Tony Scott, has resurrected the character that Cruise first played at just 24 years old.©Paramount/Courtesy Everett Coll

In 1992 he was already a star, but he was not yet considered a great actor.

Many changed their minds when he faced Jack Nicholson in one of the most memorable dialogues in recent cinema.

He was in the courtroom drama 'A Few Good Men' (1992).

"Did you order code red?" Cruise's character shouted from the stand to Nicholson.

"Do you want answers?" Nicholson then bellows.

"I want the truth!" Tom croaks.

The scene (which is recommended to listen to at low volume) was not originally in the script, but seeing the chemistry between the characters it was included.

Thirty years later, it can be confirmed that it was a good idea. Mondadori Portfolio (Mondadori via Getty Images)

Cruise's portrayal of the vampire Lestat was recognized by audiences and critics.

His chemistry with the other great star of the time, Brad Pitt, is more than evident.

But Cruise was about to not participate in 'Interview with the Vampire' (1994).

Anne Rice, the author of the novel, did not want his character to be played by a star like him.

She campaigned for the role to go to an established actor like Daniel Day-Lewis or Jeremy Irons.

"It was uncomfortable and at first it hurt my feelings," Cruise acknowledged to EL PAÍS the same year it premiered.

But the author changed her mind upon seeing the film and announced to the four winds her love for her. Francois Duhamel (Sygma via Getty Images)

The first 'Mission Impossible' was not only the beginning of his prolific saga in 1996, it was also his reconversion from youthful idol to action actor.

And that Brian de Palma's film was especially restrained with pyrotechnics and the use of weapons is minimal, with only five shots.

None gives Cruise's character.

Later, more party directors like John Woo or JJ Abrams would arrive, who put more explosions and shots.

This was the first film where Tom Cruise would hold the position of producer, something that he continued to repeat in the rest of the films in the saga.

He is also in charge of doing all the action scenes without requiring a stunt double, even if this means jumping off the tallest building in the world or changing security equipment,

Tom Cruise is the most famous Scientologist in Hollywood.

And of the world.

The actor has not known how to separate his career from his creed, as for example the Scientologist Elisabeth Moss has done.

Although he has not gone so far as to star in promotional Scientology films (as John Travolta did with 'Battlefield: Earth').

He hasn't put his career on the line, but he has put his reputation on the line.

Since he entered the congregation in 1986, at the hands of his then partner, the actress Mimi Rogers (who would be his first wife), Scientology has had a constant weight on his public image.

Not so much because of the rumors that suggest that this congregation controls their private life to the millimeter, but because of their aggressive public defense.

This reached its apex during the promotion of 'The War of the Worlds' in 2005.

In an interview on the American program 'Today', Cruise embarked on a long repudiation of psychiatry ("a pseudoscience") and antidepressant medicine ("very dangerous"), two of the black beasts of Scientology.

The presenter, Matt Lauer, tried to refute him, but he rebuked him aggressively and directly.

In the image, from 2004, during his speech at the inauguration of the new headquarters of the National Church of Scientology in Madrid, located near the Congress of Deputies.

JJ Guillen (EFE)

but he rebuked her aggressively and directly.

In the image, from 2004, during his speech at the inauguration of the new headquarters of the National Church of Scientology in Madrid, located near the Congress of Deputies.

JJ Guillen (EFE)

but he rebuked her aggressively and directly.

In the image, from 2004, during his speech at the inauguration of the new headquarters of the National Church of Scientology in Madrid, located near the Congress of Deputies.

JJ Guillen (EFE)

As for his private life, Tom Cruise has been married three times.

With Nicole Kidman he shared scenes and film in 'Days of Thunder' in 1990, when the actress was just 22 years old and Cruise, 28. After that first filming, they fell in love and on Christmas Eve 1990 they said "yes, I want ".

They would not share many more films, until Stanley Kubrick summoned them to star in 'Eyes Wide Shut' (1999), a controversial and exhausting 400-day shoot.

It would be in February 2001, and after more than 10 years married and two adopted children, Isabella and Connor, when the couple would announce their separation.

An image for the story is the gesture of happiness of the actress when signing the divorce papers, but that is for another photo gallery.Getty Images (Getty Images)

One of the most notorious romances of Tom Cruise, just a month after his divorce, he would star in 2001 with Penelope Cruz.

Their relationship arose behind the scenes when they were shooting 'Vanilla Sky' (2002).

For three years both walked the red carpets and gave more than affectionate scenes to the 'paparazzi'.

She took him out to party in Madrid and taught him some words in Spanish, which the actor used in front of the cameras whenever he had the chance.

They amicably ended their relationship in March 2004. Mario Magnani (Getty Images)

The jump on the couch on the Oprah Winfrey show is one of those scenes, off the movie screen, that nobody forgets about Tom Cruise.

In May 2005, ecstatic over her love for actress Katie Holmes, he kneels before the presenter, grabs her hands, shakes her and ends her number by bouncing on the sofa and shouting that he is in love with her. she.

The interview, which caused more than one embarrassment, ends with the actor, hand in hand, with which he would later become, a year later, his third wife.

Tom Cruise's relationship with Katie Holmes developed in the center of the media spotlight.

The couple of actors walked their love on red carpets around the world in 2005. A year later, they married in a castle on the outskirts of Rome (Italy).

The marriage lasted just over five years and had a girl, Suri Cruise.

She is the only biological daughter of the actor, who has two other children, Isabella and Connor, adopted with Nicole Kidman, with whom she does have a good relationship. Handout (Getty Images)

If there is something that characterizes him in his more than 40-year career, it is that he meets the requirements of the script to the letter, even if that means appearing with an unrecognizable appearance, as in the comedy 'Tropic Thunder' (2008).

In this comedy, starring and directed by Ben Stiller, Cruise plays Les Grossman, the villainous studio executive who pulls the strings of the movie within the movie.

In the image, the actor appears, along with Jennifer Lopez, on the stage of the 2010 MTV Movie Awards, performing a dance characterized as his character.

Kevin Mazur (WireImage)

Despite having almost 40 years of success chaining career, Tom Cruise has never won an Oscar.

Although he has been nominated in three different decades.

First for 'Born on the Fourth of July', in 1989;

later for 'Jerry Maguire', in 1997;

and, finally, as best supporting actor for 'Magnolia' in 2000. Paul Thomas Anderson's film also offered Cruise the opportunity to play his first villain (if you rule out the ambivalent Lestat of 'Interview with the Vampire ').

Cruise has won three Golden Globes, but he returned them to the association in 2021 to protest the lack of racial diversity among the nominees.

He has also won an honorary Palme d'Or at Cannes that, for the time being, he has not returned. Andreas Rentz (Getty Images)

Rourke has a reputation for being complicated, on and off the set.

He garnered his first successes thanks to films like the aforementioned

,

or

Movies that made him the center of attention when the

described him as “a Hollywood lion, with the melancholic intensity of a young Marlon Brando, the electricity of James Dean and the emotional charge of John Garfield”.

However, his success vanished in his eyes due to his continued bad manners on the set and his feud with famous people in the business, from Kim Basinger to director Oliver Stone.

"The guy's been doing the same effing part for 35 years... I got no respect for that."

Mickey Rourke tells Piers Morgan he thinks Tom Cruise is "irrelevant" as an actor.@piersmorgan |

@TalkTV |

#MickeyRourke |

#PiersMorganUncensored pic.twitter.com/joB7OSrcMD

— Piers Morgan Uncensored (@PiersUncensored) July 11, 2022

He turned down the roles of

and

and, little by little, that career that seemed unstoppable stopped.

In 2008, Mickey Rourke experienced a brief resurgence thanks to Darren Aronofsky's

, who decided to give him his penultimate opportunity, which earned him a nomination in the category of Best Actor at the Oscars.

The thing was there.

After some disagreements with Marvel, where the actor ended up getting angry for not being able to change some of the lines of the script of the character he played, he has been little seen on screen.

Not so long ago, director Martin Scorsese wanted to cast him in

but this time it was Robert de Niro who adamantly refused to work with him.