Jared Leto, WHO?! Mickey Rourke Reportedly Had All Kinds Of Batshit Demands For His “Iron Man 2” Villain Role

Vulture took an in-depth look at the making of the 2010 Marvel film, Iron Man 2, which earned $623.9 million globally and is known as one of the shittier comic book movies. It also stars Mickey Rourke as the villain, Whiplash, and apparently, Mickey had a lot of creative influence on the character that some see as one of the hokiest, cringiest, insane comic book villains ever to grace cinema. Actually, it was basically ALL Mickey, including that “Polly wanna cracker”-ass bird on his shoulder.

If you don’t remember Mickey as Ivan Vanko AKA Whiplash, here’s a clip compilation of him from the film. As far as Russian accents go, Lady Gaga‘s was much better, in my opinion.

And Mickey Rourke insisted that his character be Russian. And in addition to that Russian accent and bird on his shoulder, Mickey wanted his character to have a “samurai bun.” Normally, I think we should take fashion tips from Mickey, but really? via IndieWire:

In a Vulture exposé revisiting the Iron Man 2 production, which was critically panned, an insider revealed that Rourke wondered “What’s Iron Man 2? What’s Iron Man?” before joining the tentpole franchise without reading a script. Rourke also had constructed a fully-realized version of his character, Whiplash. “I’ll do it, but I have to have my hair in a samurai bun,” the source recalled Rourke telling director Jon Favreau and producer Kevin Feige at the time. “I have to speak in a Russian accent. And I have to have a bird on my shoulder.”

Mickey also visited a prison in Russia to do research for his character, but even though he did all that research, he had mix feelings about shit and got into it with Jon Favreau.

To prepare for the role, Rourke “steeped himself in Russian prison culture, researching mob tattoos and even visiting Moscow’s notorious Butyrka Prison,” Vulture reported. Despite his research, though, Rourke is said to have started filming with “a lot of ambivalence” and became frustrated working with director Favreau, saying he “didn’t have any balls.” Rourke also threw jabs at Marvel Studios, calling the company a maker of “mindless comic-book movies.”

Vulture’s piece adds that Mickey was originally offered $250,000 for the role, despite winning a Golden Globe and getting an Oscar nomination for his role in The Wrestler. Robert Downey Jr., who has cashed MANY Marvel checks since then, offered up some of his $10 million paycheck to help meet Mickey’s price ask. Apparently, it “was a major sum to get Mickey close, and Mickey took the deal,” according to an insider. Paying Mickey $250,000 for that performance would have been too much, Robert really lost out.

Wow, Jared Leto will not let this stand. He pretended to be disabled for his shitty comic book movie, Morbius, but Mickey got a bird?! Why didn’t Jared think of that? Living with a vampire bat companion for the duration of filming? Surely that would have made the movie good. That’s what was missing!

Pic: YouTube/Disney