‘He Used To Be Mickey Rourke, Now He’s Wearing Val Kilmer’s Face’: Tom Cruise Fans Mega Troll Iron Man 2 Actor After He Said He Doesn’t Respect Cruise’s Acting

Last Updated on: 12 July, 2022 | 10:21 PM

Top Gun: Maverick hit the theatres in America on the 27th of May 2022. Tom Cruise made his comeback on-screen with the much-awaited sequel to 1986 Top Gun. While fans of the actor were ecstatic at the star’s reprisal of the role. A few critics have remarked on the movie being too similar and Cruise’s role(s) getting too monotonous.

One such critic is Mickey Rourke of Angel Heart (1987) fame. The antagonist in 2010’s Iron Man 2. Mickey Rourke, a former boxer has been critical in his comment about Tom Cruise’s part in the new Top Gun: Maverick movie. Calling the global star “irrelevant”, Mickey Rourke went out to slam the Top Gun actor for (apparently) doing the same part for 35 years.

Has Tom Cruise’s acting career fizzled out?

Tom Cruise has been a global star since the 1980s. Playing his role in career-defining movies like Risky Business, Mission impossible series, and Top Gun. Cruise’s career has gone through a lot of ups and downs. Nonetheless, the actor currently is riding on the glory of the massive success, of his recent release (Top Gun: Maverick). Grossing over $1 billion at the worldwide box office, the movie has brought Tom Cruise back into the limelight. The success of Top Gun continues his run as an ‘action’ star. A role he reinvented himself into, in the 2010s. With movies like Knight and Day and the Mission Impossible franchise. Before this phase, he had a rough early 2000s owing to his oddball public behavior and association with Scientology.

Tom Cruise in MIP (Rogue Nation) — Tom Cruise, in Mission Impossible- Rogue Nation (2015)

Cruise’s stunt work, which has seen him take on an increasing number of risky moviemaking challenges like swinging off of skyscrapers, jumping out of airplanes, and riding dirt bikes off of cliffs, is of course a significant component of his late-career movie star character. An ‘audience attracting’ ability not everyone is impressed by, including Mickey Rourke. An actor who started his career at around the same timeline as Cruise, Rourke recently on Piers Uncensored and had strong words for the Top Gun: Maverick actor.

Mickey Rourke, in Iron Man 2. — Mickey Rourke in a still, from Iron Man 2.

Rourke was quoted saying, “That doesn’t mean s–t to me. The guy’s been doing the same effing part for 35 years. I got no respect for that. I don’t care about money and power. I care about, it when I watch Al Pacino’s work, and Chris Walken and De Niro’s early work. Richard Harris’ work, Ray Winstone’s work. Monty Clift. Brando back in the day. And a lot of guys that just tried to stretch as actors. … I think [Cruise] is irrelevant in my world.”

Does Mickey Rourke have a point or is he simply, jealous of Tom Cruise?

After having a rough patch in his career, owing to his on and off-screen behavior. Mickey Rourke enjoyed his re-emergence into the headlines with roles in movies like Sin City and Iron Man 2, and in Darren Aronofsky’s acclaimed The Wrestler. Rourke more recently is seen doing low-budget direct-to-video action movies of the Geezer Teaser variety. While it is easy to dismiss his opinion as a person who hasn’t been very successful and redirects his bitterness at a hugely successful star like Cruise with resentment. It is not just him who thinks of Cruise as more of an action star than a true actor with variety, an argument that holds some validity.