What you need to know
Mickey Rourke is speaking out against a GoFundMe campaign launched on his behalf to prevent eviction and admitting past wrongdoing.
Rourke, 73, took to Instagram on Monday, January 5, to denounce a GoFundMe campaign that appeared to have been launched in his name by members of his executive team the day before. The document was created after he was served a notice to pay $59,100 in unpaid rent or vacate his Los Angeles property in December.
After declaring in the video that he was “not going to ask for free charity” if he needed money, Rourke said, “Listen, I’ve done a really bad job of managing my career. I’ve never been very diplomatic.”
“I had to go through over 20 years of therapy to overcome the damage I did all those years ago, and I worked hard to get through it,” Rourke added. “I’m not that person anymore, but you know, I can’t say that. You have to tell the last few people I worked with.”
On Instagram, Rourke cited his collaborators and directors, including Robert Rodriguez, Francis Ford Coppola and Darren Aronofsky, as people who have signaled a change in his professional demeanor in recent years. (The former boxer turned actor is best known for co-starring in Rodriguez’s Sin City films. One of his earliest film roles was in Coppola’s 1983 film Rumble Fish, and he starred as the title character in Aronofsky’s 2008 film The Wrestler, for which he was nominated for an Oscar.)
“I’m not the wild guy I was 20-odd years ago, but I have to pay for my past,” Rourke added.
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Rourke maintains he has no connection to the GoFundMe page set up in his name, which has currently raised $102,058, but has stopped accepting donations as of Tuesday, January 6th. The GoFundMe is attributed to a woman named Leah Joelle Jones, who described herself in the fundraiser’s description as an assistant to Rourke’s manager, Kimberly Hines. The description also says it was “created with Mickey’s full permission to cover immediate housing-related expenses and prevent eviction.”
At the end of the video, Rourke said: “We have a roof over our heads, we have food to eat…Everything will be fine, just give us your money back.” “I don’t need anyone’s money. I wouldn’t do this. I’m too proud. This isn’t my style.”
Rourke appeared in three movies last year, including “The Devil’s Play,” “Jade,” and “The Roaring Game.” He has a number of projects in development.
In response to Rourke’s video, Hynes confirmed to THR in an article published Tuesday that the fundraiser was set up by his team for the actor and that all proceeds will go to him. She also admitted that although she told the actor, he may not have fully understood what was happening at the time.
“We said, ‘Mickey, there’s someone who wants to help you.’ He was like, ‘Okay, great.’ I don’t think he understood, and now with this media frenzy, he flipped out,” Hines told THR.
