Old feuds die hard, even among Hollywood stars.
Mickey Rourke was apparently set to be among the big names that will appear in Martin Scorsese’s Oscar hopeful The Irishman, alongside Al Pacino, Harvey Keitel, and Robert De Niro. But according to Rourke, De Niro had other ideas. Rourke revealed his ouster from the film on the Italian show Live – Non è la D’Urso and shared some details about the longstanding beef between the two actors, The Independent reports.
Rourke had colorful words for De Niro: “Robert De Niro said he refused to work with me in a movie. I don’t look up to him no more; I look through him. I lived that fucking life, so every time I look him in the face I look right through his asshole.”
The feud between Rourke and De Niro apparently dates back to the 1987 film Angel Heart. Rourke says he was looking forward to working with De Niro on the film, but the older actor iced him out, saying, “I think it’s better if we don’t talk.”
A representative of De Niro has disputed Rourke’s account. In a statement to the Daily Dot, Stan Rosenfeld from De Niro’s PR firm wrote, “According to The Irishman producers, Jane Rosenthal and Emma Tillinger Koskoff, and casting director Ellen Lewis, ‘Mickey Rourke was
never asked to be in The Irishman nor was he ever even thought of, discussed or considered to be in the movie.'”
The Irishman will tell the story of a man (De Niro) who is involved in the alleged murder of union boss Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino). Netflix is preparing a massive Oscar campaign for the film, which will hit theaters Nov. 1 before making its streaming debut on Nov. 27.
READ MORE:
- Here’s the first trailer for ‘The Irishman,’ Netflix’s Scorsese-led Oscar hope
- Scorsese’s ‘The Irishman’ gets theatrical release—but Netflix isn’t playing nice
- The quintessential Martin Scorsese movies, ranked
H/T Decider