Bella Thorne is joining the “Big Brother” party in piling allegations of rude, unprofessional behavior on “The Wrestler” actor Mickey Rourke.
Rourke was given a warning this week on the U.K. incarnation of “Big Brother” after making comments about JoJo Siwa’s sexuality — the “Dance Moms” veteran came out in 2021 — asking her if she liked boys or girls and noting he would “vote the lesbian out real quick,” the BBC reported. He also used a homophobic slur that is British slang for a cigarette when he was in the show’s smoking area, pointing to Siwa and saying, “I’m not talking to you,” the outlet said.
Rourke apologized later to his 21-year-old housemate, but was still told by “Big Brother” that “further language or behavior of this nature could lead to you being removed from the Big Brother house.” The actor, 72, explained that he was “just talking smack, you know. I wasn’t taking it all so serious” and didn’t have “dishonorable intentions.”
However, that wasn’t enough to get outspoken “The DUFF” actor Thorne to rein in her thoughts.
“This f— dude,” the OnlyFans disrupter and Disney Channel alum wrote in her Instagram stories, reacting to an article about the “Big Brother” drama. “Gross. I had to work with this man — In a scene where I’m on my knees with my hands zip tied around my back. He’s supposed to take a metal grinder to my knee cap and instead he used it on my genitals thru my jeans. Hitting them over and over again. I had bruises on my pelvic bone — Working with Mickey was one of the all time worst experiences of my life working as an actress.”
A representative for Rourke did not respond immediately Friday to a request for comment.
The two were both in the 2020 movie “Girl,” about a daughter who comes back to her small hometown intent upon killing her abusive dad, only to discover someone whacked him the day before she got there. Thorne played the Girl and Rourke played the Sheriff, leaving one to wonder how the metal grinder and zip ties came into the picture.
“So many gross stories of things he made me go thru on that movie, including in his last scene to speed up and rev his engine so he could cover me completely in dirt,” she wrote in another story. “Idk I guess he thought it was funny to humiliate me in front of the entire crew.”
She said she had to go into the “Iron Man 2” actor’s trailer alone and persuade him to get to work so they could finish the film because he wouldn’t speak to the director or producers. Thorne said he shouted “crazy demands” of what he wanted from the producers while she was there with him.
“Since the movie could not be finished without him,” she wrote. “Everyone’s work would’ve just been lost and completely for nothing.”
Then again, this is the same Mickey Rourke who, according to “Iron Man 2” director John Favreau, once flew himself out to Moscow to research his role as villain Ivan Vanko and came back with requests that his character speak mostly Russian, have a pet bird and flash a lot of Eastern Province body ink.
This is also the same guy who in the mid-80s cultivated a bad-boy image to counter his looks and seemed on the brink of A-list stardom after roles in “Body Heat,” “Diner” and “9½ Weeks.”
“Ruggedly handsome before boxing and surgery took their toll, Rourke had a trio of movies in 1987 that represent the crest of his movie stardom,” The Times wrote in 2010. “Seen in order of their release, they’re a kind of Rorschach test on the essence of Rourke. You either see the same stringy haired guy growling his way through the three roles, or you appreciate the full spectrum of Mickeyness on display.”
The movies were “Angel Heart,” “A Prayer for the Dying” and “Barfly.” In the last one, Rourke’s character often sounded “like a cross between Mae West and Bob Dylan,” according to The Times’ review.
“The press would always like to portray Mickey as a crazy lunatic which he is not,” Rourke’s then-manager told The Times in 1992, responding to rumors of a spat between her client and a couple of writers — one that allegedly involved a sinister phone call from the actor. “He’s a generous, outgoing, good-hearted human being who is completely misrepresented.”
More than 30 years later? Rourke told Siwa on “Big Brother” that it took him “23 years of therapy to get almost normal” and the two now appear to have become some sort of friends.
