In the latest chapter of Mickey Rourke and Robert De Niro’s thirty-year feud, Rourke has taken to Instagram in a now-deleted post taking aim at The Irishman star, threatening to “embarrass him severely” after his representatives rebuked Rourke’s claims that he was blocked from appearing in the film.
This most recent controversy emerged after Rourke claimed on Italian TV show Non è la D’Urso that he was all set to meet director Martin Scorsese about the film until De Niro intervened and refused to work with him, which he alleges led to him being dropped from the film.
“Marty Scorsese, great director, he wanted to meet me for a movie with Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, Chris Walken and Robert De Niro,” Rourke said at the time. “The casting person told my manager that Robert De Niro said he refused to work with me in a movie.”
Pouring cold water over these claims in a statement to The Washington Post, Robert De Nero’s rep, Stan Rosenfield, responded that “[a]ccording 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.”
In the Instagram post, Rourke says to De Niro – who Rosenfield claims is “aware of these comments” – that he is “the 1st person that ever called me a liar and it was in a newspaper [sic]”.
Continuing with his rant, the Oscar-nominated actor says:
“Let me tell you something, you punk ass, when i see you i swear to God on my Grandmother, on my brother and all my dogs, i gonna embarrass you severely 100%.”
He signs off as “Mickey Rourke, ‘as God is my witness’.”
This isn’t the first time Mickey Rourke has made allegations about De Niro’s behaviour: their feud began back in 1987, when both actors were filming for the movie Angel Heart. At the time, Rourke claimed that he was snubbed by his co-star.
Words by Charlotte Colombo
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