Mickey Rourke has denied approving a GoFundMe fundraiser set up to prevent his potential eviction, despite organizers initially stating they had his “full permission.”
“Something’s come up that I’m really frustrated, confused, I don’t
understand. Somebody set up some kind of foundation or fund for me to donate money, like charity. That’s not me. Okay? If I needed money, I wouldn’t ask for no f–king charity. I’d rather stick a gun up my ass and pull the trigger,” Rourke shared in a late Monday Instagram video. “So whoever did this, I don’t know if they did it, why they did it. I don’t understand it. I wouldn’t know what a GoFund foundation is in a million years.”
The Oscar-nominated actor’s message came a day after The Hollywood Reporter reported that the fundraiser was started by his friend Liya-Joelle Jones, assistant to Rourke’s manager of a decade Kimberly Hines. The page has since raised $102,000 to combat the $59,000 the star reportedly owed in back rent — although Rourke now notes he wants people to get their money back.
“Listen, I’ve done a really terrible job in managing my career. I wasn’t very diplomatic. You know, I had to go to over 20 years of therapy to get over the damage that was done to me years ago and I worked very hard to work through that. And I’m not that person anymore,” he said in his video. “But, you know, I can’t be the one to say that. You got to talk to the last several people I’ve worked with. Talk to Robert Rodriguez, talk to Francis Coppola, talk to Darren Aronofsky. I’m not that wild man that I was 20 something years ago, but you pay the price for your past.”
“It’s humiliating and it’s really f–king embarrassing,” the “Wrestler” star added. Following the video, Jones told THR Rourke may have not been clear on the public parameters of launching the GoFundMe.
“We’ll get to the bottom of this. And, you know, like all storms, this thing will pass and I’ll go to work and things will get back to whatever normal is,” Rourke concluded. “I can’t say I hope you believe me, because a lot of people are going to go, but if you do the math, you can figure it out. It’s just not me. I don’t want anybody’s money.”
