In a surprising turn, the first ever self elimination took place on The Masked Singer tonight with the elusive “Gremlin” removing their mask and walking off the show. The person behind the mask was revealed to be none other than Academy Award nominee and former Iron Man 2 co-star Mickey Rourke. Host Nick Cannon and panelists Jenny McCarthy, Nicole Scherzinger, Ken Jeong and Robin Thicke were all shocked by his unmasking, but the actor seemed eager to get out of the costume and back to his life. Rourke claimed to be a fan of the series when asked about it. Watch the wild video for yourself below!
Rourke’s elimination was just the second of the new season with rapper Busta Rhymes being the first of this batch of episodes. Though the star of The Wrestler and Sin City was the first Marvel Cinematic Universe vet to put on a mask and perform for the series, he joins a surprising roster of celebrities that have appeared. Previous seasons of the show included the likes of professional skateboarder Tony Hawk, former Alaska governor and Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, NFL player Rob Gronkowski, professional gamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, and even actual singers like Seal, Chris Daughtry, and Bret Michaels.
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It’s a little surprising to see Rourke take part in mainstream fair like The Masked Singer, especially after he didn’t mince words over his dissatisfaction with working on Iron Man with Marvel Studios. In an interview in 2011, Rourke said: “I explained to Justin Theroux, to the writer, and to [Jon] Favreau that I wanted to bring some other layers and colors, not just make this Russian a complete murderous revenging bad guy,and they allowed me to do that. Unfortunately, the [people] at Marvel just wanted a one-dimensional bad guy, so most of the performance ended up the floor.”
He added, “It is f—ing too bad, but it’s their loss. If they want to make mindless comic book movies, then I don’t want to be a part of that…At the end of the day you’ve got some nerd with a pocketful of money calling the shots. You know, Favreau didn’t call the shots. I wish he would have.”
The Masked Singer airs Wednesdays on FOX at 8 PM ET and features a variety of unmasked characters this time around including Baby Alien, Broccoli, Crocodile, Giraffe, Jellyfish, Popcorn, Squiggly Monster, and Whatchamacallit, and Snow Owls (the first two person character).
