Mickey Rourke rejects fans’ $100,000 in ‘humiliating’ charity

Mickey Rourke doesn’t want your money.

He would rather shoot himself in a particularly graphic way — don’t ask for details, it’s very Mickey Rourke — than take charity while he’s getting kicked out of his home, the actor and former boxer said in a video posted Monday night on Instagram. “That’s not me,” the 73-year-old said.

Holding a Chihuahua named Lucky in his lap, Rourke alleged that he didn’t know who set up a GoFundMe campaign on his behalf over the weekend. The effort, ostensibly aimed at keeping Rourke in his home when he faced eviction because of nearly $60,000 in unpaid rent, was set up Sunday by members of his management team and raised more than its $100,000 goal by Tuesday morning. Dozens of the more than 2,700 people who donated posted messages about how much the actor’s films had meant to them over the years.

“I wouldn’t know what a GoFund foundation is in a million years,” said Rourke, who was a leading man in the 1980s with movies including “Barfly” and “Angel Heart” and was Oscar-nominated for his work in 2008’s “The Wrestler.” “My life is very simple and I don’t go to outside sources like that. Yeah, it is embarrassing, but I’m sure I’ll get over it, like anything else.”

As for the money, he said later in the video that he “would never ask strangers or fans for a nickel. That’s not my style. You ask anyone who knows me. It’s humiliating and it’s really f— embarrassing. … If somebody gave me — they said it’s up to $100,000. I wouldn’t take a f— nickel from anybody.”

But don’t mistake this for an outburst from the man Rourke used to be, he said. He has simply been in “a really bad situation” with the house he was renting for years in Beverly Grove. New owners bought the place, he said, raised the rent to $7,000 a month from $5,200 and wouldn’t fix anything.

Rourke alleged that the floors were rotted, there was no running water in a couple of places there should have been and the place was infested with rodents.

Ricardo Villalobos, the attorney representing owner Eric Goldie in the eviction case, did not reply immediately Tuesday to The Times’ request for comment about Rourke’s allegations. The eviction paperwork, reviewed by The Times, was filed Dec. 29 and cited $59,100 in unpaid rent for 2025.

Meanwhile, Rourke’s manager of nine years, Kimberly Hines, talked to the Hollywood Reporter about the GoFundMe in a call from Europe. She had spoken with Rourke a couple of times Sunday, she said, and she said it’s not true that he has no idea who started the fundraising effort.

“Nobody’s trying to grift Mickey. I want him working. I don’t want him doing a GoFundMe,” Hines told THR. “The good thing about this is that he got four movie offers since yesterday. People are emailing him movie offers now, which is great because nobody’s been calling him for a long time.”

She and her assistant ran the idea past Rourke’s assistant, she said, and everyone thought the fundraiser might be helpful. Hines and her assistant arranged for movers and a U-Haul, got the “Iron Man 2” villain and his three dogs out and into a nearby hotel and secured an apartment for him to move into soon in Koreatown, she said, before his landlords were to change the locks Tuesday on what she called an “uninhabitable” house.

“There was black mold,” in the house, Hines told THR. “No running water. So basically, we can’t even move any of the furniture out. There was water damage. So he can’t even take most of his belongings with him because all the furniture is completely destroyed.” Someone recorded the damage on video, she said, while a couple of people “were at his house packing up all of his valuables that could be salvaged, and they were moved to this new apartment.”

Hines told THR that she plans to remain as Rourke’s manager despite the chaos. She did not respond to The Times’ request for comment Monday.

“[N]obody here has done anything wrong,” she told the trade. “It was done with a good intention, with a good heart. … Right now, I’m fronting the money for Mickey to get him out of this emergency situation.”

Hines said Rourke should probably take the donated money, because she can finance him for only so long. The actor has never been great at managing his money, she said.

“He doesn’t really know the word moderation,” she told THR. “So he either has a lot or has nothing. He lives check to check.” She said Rourke’s accountant was trying to get the actor’s money situation in order and it was time for a reality check with the actor about living within his means off Social Security and income from any work that might come his way.

In his video, Rourke admitted the business end of his business has never been his strong suit.

“Listen, I’ve done a really terrible job in managing my career. I wasn’t very diplomatic. 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 get through that,” the “9½ Weeks” star said. “I’m not that person anymore. … You gotta talk to the last several people I’ve worked with. Talk to Robert Rodriguez, talk to Francis Coppola, talk to Darren Aronofsky. You know, I’m not that wild man I was 20-something years ago. But you pay the price for your past.”

That said, he was adamant that the fundraising effort was “really embarrassing” and that people who donated should get their money back.

But, he said, “Like all storms, this’ll pass, and I’ll go to work and things will get back to whatever normal is.”

Until then, Rourke said, don’t worry about him.

“I’m grateful for what I have. I’ve got a roof over my head, I’ve got food to eat. … Everything’s OK. Just get your money back, please. I don’t need anybody’s money, and I wouldn’t do it this way. I’ve got too much pride. This ain’t my style.”