Mickey Rourke criticizes 'irrelevant' Tom Cruise for playing the 'same effing part for 35 years'
Don't expect Mickey Rourke to ever play Tom Cruise's wingman.
The Wrestler actor, 69, was asked about Cruise's recent billion dollar box office success with Top Gun:Maverick and gave his honest opinion about his "irrelevant" peer.
"That doesn't mean s*** to me," Rourke said on Piers Morgan Uncensored. "The guy's been doing the same effing part for 35 years, ya know? I've got no respect for that."
"The guy's been doing the same effing part for 35 years... I got no respect for that."
— Piers Morgan Uncensored (@PiersUncensored) July 11, 2022
Mickey Rourke tells Piers Morgan he thinks Tom Cruise is "irrelevant" as an actor.@piersmorgan | @TalkTV | #MickeyRourke | #PiersMorganUncensoredpic.twitter.com/joB7OSrcMD
Rourke went on to say, "I don't care about money and power. I care about when I watch Al Pacino work and Chris Walken and [Robert] De Niro's early work and Richard Harris's work and Ray Winstone's work. That’s the kind of actor I want to be like. Like Monty Clift and [Marlon] Brando back in the day. A lot of guys who tried to stretch as actors."
Morgan then asked, "You don't think Tom Cruise is a good actor?" — and Rourke made his stance even more clear.
"I think he's irrelevant in my world," replied Rourke, who has been filming Roman Polanski’s upcoming film The Palace.
A rep for Cruise has not yet responded to Yahoo Entertainment's request for comment.
Top Gun: Maverick, the long-awaited sequel to the 1986 original starring Cruise as a Navy pilot, came out May 27 and has raked in $1.18 billion internationally so far.
Last week, Miles Teller — who appeared in Maverick — said he's had "conversations" with "T.C." about a Top Gun 3. "It's all up to Tom," he added. "We'll see."