Mickey Rourke Slams "Irrelevant" Tom Cruise

In a recent media appearance, actor Mickey Rourke criticized Tom Cruise for playing the "same part for 35 f***ing years" and is irrelevant. Rourke laid into Cruise on Piers Morgan Uncensored, offering a harsh and also swear- and epithet-laden response of his '80s contemporary when asked what he thought of Cruise and Top Gun: Maverick.

"That doesn't mean s*** to me," said Rourke (via Variety). "The guy’s been doing the same f***ing part for 35 years. I got no respect for that. 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. 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… [Cruise] is irrelevant in my world."

Although box office takes are certainly not the same thing as cultural influence, Rourke's comment also comes on the heels of Top Gun: Maverick recently becoming the second movie of the pandemic era to surpass $1 billion at the global box office, Cruise's first to achieve that milestone, and the 50th movie in history to reach that figure overall.

Paramount has not announced any sequel to Top Gun: Maverick, though given its success it's no surprise there have been rumors that Cruise is open to revisiting to make it a trilogy. Cruise's next major films on the horizon are the two-part Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning sequels, slated to arrive in 2023 and 2024.

Rourke stars in Roman Polanski's new film, The Palace.