Fans Label Mickey Rourke 'Jealous' after He Slammed 'Irrelevant' Tom Cruise for Playing Same Role for 35 Years

For the first time in nearly four decades, Tom Cruise has achieved a new height he had never reached before in his career, with his latest movie currently grossing at a billion dollars. Unfortunately, not everyone is happy for the star.

Tom Cruise seems to only get better with age. The star started his career in the '80s and made his breakthrough with his leading role in the 1983 comedy film "Risky Business. Three years later, he starred in "Top Gun."

He has since starred in numerous science fiction and action movies throughout his forty-year career, gaining international fame as an action star. He's also majorly recognized for doing his stunts.

From hanging on the side of a plane, skydiving, and climbing the world's tallest building, Cruise has done it all. And now, nearly four decades after "Top Gun" came out, Cruise is back for the sequel, "Top Gun: Maverick," in which he reprises his notable role as Pete "Maverick" Mitchell.

The film, released in 2022, has quickly gained traction and has already crossed the billion-dollar mark at the worldwide box office. It is also the second-highest-grossing film in Paramount's long history in terms of domestic figures, second only to the 1997's "Titanic."

"Top Gun: Maverick" marks the actor's first ever film to hit the $1 billion milestone, and while fans are happy about their action star's success, not everyone holds him in the same regard. Fans claim actor Mickey Rourke is jealous of the star's success.

MICKEY ROURKE CALLED TOM CRUISE 'IRRELEVANT'

Considering that "Top Gun: Maverick" is the year's most famous movie, it seems odd that someone would call Cruise irrelevant. That was the case with "The Pledge" actor Mickey Rourke who recently appeared on "Piers Morgan Uncensored" and slammed Cruise:

"[Tom Cruise has] been doing the same effing part for 35 years. I got no respect for that."

"I don't care about money or power. I care about…when I watch Al Pacino or Christopher Walken working, or De Niro's early work and Richard Harris and Ray Winstone, that's the kind of actor I want to be like. A lot of guys that tried to stretch as actors." He continued.

Rourke feels Cruise has not stretched his acting muscles for decades, and even though the movie competes for the top spots with only a select few, such as "Avatar: The Way of Water" and "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever," Rourke does not think Cruise is a good actor. He said of Cruise:

"I think he's irrelevant."

MICKEY ROURKE DOES NOT LOOK THE SAME AS HE DID 35 YEARS AGO

Rourke may have been in the acting scenes for years, but one would not recognize him from his earlier movies. After botched plastic surgeries to change his face, he now looks completely different than he did many years ago.

No wonder he came hard at Cruise for playing the same role for 35 years. With his surgery, Rourke would not reprise a role he played many years back because he would seem like a different person, and fans now think that "The Wrestler" actor snapped at Cruise because he was jealous.

At the beginning of his career, Rourke was renowned for his beauty. With a downward slope of a voice, heavy eyelids, and an angular and delicate face, he seemed to have a knowing cheekiness and magnetism that many could not resist.

However, in the 90s, Rourke abandoned acting in favor of boxing, and in only a few years, the constant hits on his face completely dismantled it. He broke his nose twice, snapped his cheekbones, and damaged his ribs and toes.

Advisors told him to quit the sport, or he would sustain permanent brain damage. Eventually, he left boxing, but by then, his face was nothing like it used to be. The soft femininity blurred with rugged manliness was long gone, so he turned to quick surgical fixes to regain his once-handsome face.

Unfortunately, the surgeries did not go as expected. The mess was evident to all, such as in several scenes of the erotic thriller "Wild Orchid," where Rourke's cheeks looked noticeably swollen.

While many speculated it was a result of poorly placed implants, Rourke denied the claims saying it was the unexpected side effects of tooth surgery. However, in 2009, he finally admitted that his changing looks resulted from botched surgeries. Independent reports him to have confessed:

"Most of it was to mend the mess of my face because of the boxing, but I went to the wrong guy to put my face back together."

FANS CLAIM MICKEY IS JEALOUS OF TOM

Rourke coming at Cruise did not sit well with many fans, who now think he is jealous of Cruise. Many fans took to Twitter to express their disgust at Rourke's comments.

While most fans bashed Rourke for his remarks, they all seemed to agree that Rourke was acting out of jealousy. One Twitter user said Rourke snapped at Cruise out of bitterness. They wrote:

"He doesn't look like he did when he was making better films. The last time he looked normal was the rainmaker."

Another tweeted how much they loved Cruise's films. adding that since Rourke had his surgery, he'd become jealous and goofy looking. "Plastic surgery has made Mickey jealous and goofy looking. I like most of Tom's movies." They wrote.

A third Twitter user thought Cruise was outstanding in his recent "Top Gun: Maverick" role, saying they watched the movie thrice. They couldn't wait for it to be released in DVDs so they could blast it on their home theatre.

Another shared their thoughts on the matter, saying that Cruise seemed to have found inner peace with all his success and wondered why Rourke could not do the same.

In another comment, a fan compared Cruise and Rourke's net worth, noting that Rourke was worth $10 million while Cruise was cruising at $600 million.

With that information, they concluded that Cruise is more relevant than Rourke will ever be, which bothered him to the core, hence his "bitter" utterances toward the "Mission Impossible" star.

Yet another Twitter user wondered why Rourke could not swallow his pride and commend Cruise on a well-done job. "He couldn't exactly say, 'Tom is better looking, a better actor, and much more successful than me,' could he?" They added.