Mickey Rourke Prefers ‘Real Acting’ Over ‘That Crap’ Acting in Marvel Movies
Zack Sharf
Mickey Rourke was coming off a career resurgence from his Oscar-nominated role in “The Wrestler” when he was cast as the villainous Ivan Vanko/Whiplash in “Iron Man 2.” The experience didn’t go well for Rourke, and the actor continues to take hits at Marvel over a decade after the Jon Favreau-directed sequel opened in theaters. Rourke’s latest MCU jab came while praising “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” which the actor only recently discovered while in quarantine. Rourke said he much prefers the real acting on display in “Law & Order” to “that crap” acting featured in Marvel movies.
“Mariska Hargitay is a very concentrated actress, she is absolutely great in every episode,” Rourke wrote on social media. “Her dedication and very meticulous work put her on another level. There’s very few, if any actresses in films these days that can hold her jock strap. I give her tremendous respect for her amazing ability.”
Rourke continued, “Christopher Meloni, the man brings a lot to the table with his physicality…I also took notice to the classy and highly talented intense Stephanie March, as well as BD Wong. I’m most surprised, tremendously impressed with the charisma, the attitude and swag and sincerity that Ice T brings to his particular role. What’s especially enjoying is watching commodity of this exceptional group of actors…Respect to all of you, the work that you all do is real acting, not like that crap that all on Marvel shit.”
Rourke previously slammed Marvel in an interview with CraveOnline, claiming the studio edited out his performance in “Iron Man 2.” The actor said, “I explained to [Jon] Favreau that I wanted to bring some other layers and colors, not just make this Russian a complete murderous revenging bad guy. And they allowed me to do that. Unfortunately, the [people] at Marvel just wanted a one-dimensional bad guy, so most of the performance ended up [on] the floor.”
Rourke added, “At the end of the day you’ve got some nerd with a pocketful of money calling the shots. You know, Favreau didn’t call the shots. I wish he would have.”
“Iron Man 2” is often cited as one of the weaker entries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film was still a box office success, grossing $623 million at the worldwide box office.
