Hollywood legend Mickey Rourke beat Tom Cruise as ‘irrelevant’† before bursting into tears discussing the ongoing war Ukraine On Piers Morgan uncensored†
The American actor and former boxer appeared on Morgan’s talk TV show on Monday evening, where he discussed the meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2014 before he got emotional as he discussed the situation in Ukraine†
He also shared his thoughts on Top Gun: Maverick star Cruise follows up on the action, saying, “I have no respect for that… I don’t care about money and power. I care when I see Al Pacino at work, the early work of Chris Walken and De Niro and the work of Richard Harris and the work of Ray Winstone.
“I want to be an actor like… Brando used to be. The kind of guys who tried to stretch themselves as actors.”
When asked by Morgan if he thought Cruise was a “good actor,” Rourke replied, “I don’t think he’s relevant in my world.”
Elsewhere during the candid interview, the Iron Man 2 star confessed that his feelings had changed since meeting Putin in 2014, after an image of him wearing a Putin T-shirt surfaced.
The 69-year-old clarified: “That was 2014. I want to make that clear.”
Rourke recalled a “heartbreaking” moment when Putin invited him to “visit a home that cared for small, small children with incurable cancer” in St. Petersburg.
“That was really heartbreaking to go to and I talked to all these little kids and I remember dedicating a rosary of mine to one of the little girls.
“And I looked at Vladimir and I saw someone who was genuinely concerned about where we were and someone who was empathetic and he was there for a genuine reason.”
The actor continued: “That’s the thing that surprises me because they’re like two brother countries and I don’t understand what he wants.
“Not only fighters are killed, but old people are killed, young people are killed, schools are targeted, hospitals are targeted.”
“That’s all wrong,” Rourke added.
The Wrestler actor couldn’t hold back his tears any longer when he saw an image of an old man in Ukraine amid the ongoing war.
“I saw a man, an image of a man looking at a hole, at a ditch,” he explained, adding: “I put myself in the position, he was looking for his brother and that kind of hit me and disturbed me a lot and made me think [Putin’s] he does really terrible, bad things and I wish there was some kind of bell ringing in his head or heart and he would wake up and all this would stop.
“Then I saw a picture of a man, an old man on a bicycle lying on top of him and the old woman who had been shot on a bicycle.”
He fought back his tears and added: ‘But the image that bothered me the most, I saw this old man old in a little gray kitten and the old one survived his house being bombed.
“He lost five relatives and the only thing he had, it’s a little hard for me to talk about it, all he had was this little gray kitten.
“I looked at that image… and I said how can I worry about anything? Lost a movie? Or am I having a bad day?
“I watch this old man holding a little pussy that crawled out of the rubble and that’s all he had, he lost five relatives,” adding that “ever since that day” he’s “prayed” for those people he remembers himself that he had seen in images of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
Elsewhere in the interview, Rourke opened up about his abusive upbringing, revealing that he had spent 23 years in therapy to work through his traumatic childhood and past.
“I came from a very shameful upbringing and it was very violent, and very physically abusive and mentally abusive,” he said, adding: “When I left home, about 14 or 15…I was so happy that the physical pain was over, because that was horrible, but I didn’t realize it would ruin my mind and my way of dealing with people.’
The Expendables shined in his actions as he tried to shut out his past and had “alienated” those around him, saying he was “living in shame.”
“There comes a time and it happened when I was about 14 years old and if you live in shame there’s nothing worse. You have two choices: you live in shame and you become a broken soul or person, or you become hard.
“I chose to get tough, not by choice, but by surviving.”
Piers Morgan Uncensored airs weekdays at 8 p.m. on TalkTV.
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