Tom Cruise has been branded "irrelevant" by a fellow Hollywood actor. Photo / Getty Images
It's a battle of the action actors.
Mickey Rourke, 69, has branded Tom Cruise as "irrelevant" while appearing on the Piers Morgan Uncensored talk show.
The actor accused the Mission: Impossible daredevil of doing "the same effing part" in his movies for decades and insisted he has no "respect" for the actor because he doesn't challenge himself.
When asked how he felt to see Cruise top the box office charts with Top Gun: Maverick, he said: "That doesn't mean s*** to me.
"The guy's been doing the same effing 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's work and Chris Walken and De Niro's early work and Richard Harris' work and Ray Winstone's work. That's the kind of actor I want to be like. Monty Clift and Brando back in the day. The kind of guys who tried to stretch as actors."
When asked by the outspoken talk show host if he thinks Cruise is a good actor, he replied: "I think he's irrelevant, in my world".
Elsewhere in the interview, which aired on July 11, the Wrestler star admitted he had been having therapy for 23 years to tackle the "shame" he felt over his abusive childhood.
He said: "I came from a very shameful upbringing and it was very violent, and very physically abusive and mentally.
"When I left home, like 14 or 15… I was so happy that the physical pain was over, because that was horrifying but I didn't realise it was going to f*** me up in my head and my way of dealing with people."
Rourke began to "alienate" those around him and was "living in shame", resulting in him "getting hard" to survive.
He said: "There comes a time and it happened when I was about 14 and when you are living in shame there is nothing worse. You have two choices – you either live in shame, and you become a broken soul or person, or you get hard.
"I chose to get hard not by choice but by survival."
Robyn Malcolm's acclaimed TV drama is to air in the UK.