Kim Basinger Reacts to Mickey Rourke Feud Rumors Nearly 40 Years After9½ Weeks

Mar. 15, 2025

Kim Basinger, Mickey Rourke.Photo:Phillip Faraone/WireImage; Phillip Faraone/WireImage

Phillip Faraone/WireImage; Phillip Faraone/WireImage

Kim Basingersays she “loved” working withMickey Rourkenearly 40 years ago, despite any rumors that claim otherwise.

The Oscar winner, who starred alongside Rourke in director Adrian Lyne’s9½ Weeksback in 1986, now tellsVarietythere wasn’t a feud between the pair during filming.

“I wanted to meet Mickey Rourke in that grocery store [depicted in the film],” Basinger, 71, said. “I did not want to say hello to him before. I didn’t want to talk to him on the set. It had nothing to do with all the stuff you read on the internet about he and I hating each other."

“I loved him,” she added. “He’s a brilliant actor too. But when I met him for the first time, it was on film. And I never saw him any other time.”

Mickey Rourke and Kim Basinger on the set of 1986’s ‘9 1/2 Weeks’.Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty

Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty

Basinger added that she had a “love-hate” relationship with the film’s director but was “very crazy about him.” She also toldVarietyshe believed the film could not be made today, adding that she has “some of the most loyal fans in the world because of9½ Weeks.”

“Talk about out-of-the-box and unafraid," she said of Lyne, who also directedFlashdanceandFatal Attraction. “He’s fought censorship his whole life, which is a bad war to fight all the time.”

The director previously discussed the communication between the film’s stars offscreen during a 2015 interview withThe Hollywood Reporter.

“Because it was shot roughly in continuity, I thought it was interesting to let the relationship build on film. It wasn’t manipulation; it was just to try to help,” Lyne said at the time.

“There was a scene where he’s testing her — it got cut — and he wants her to take pills, essentially die for him. She doesn’t know the pills are sugar. We started to shoot it and she just looked too fresh,” Lyne added. “So I spoke to Mickey and said, ‘We’ve got to do something to break her down.’ So he grabbed her arm and wouldn’t let go. She became angry then tearful. In the back of her mind, I’m sure she knew that it was to help her. And then she was marvelous.”

Mickey Rourke on Nov. 28, 2017.BG020/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images

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Elsewhere during her discussion withVariety, Basinger spoke about her relationship with exAlec Baldwin, whom she was married to from 1993 to 2002. The pair share daughterIreland Baldwin, 29.

“Alec and I have a great relationship,” Basinger said. “I have great respect for where he is today, and his family. You know, we don’t spend Christmases and holidays or see each other very much. But we talk. He’ll pick up the phone and call me, and we have a very genuinely cordial and I think loving relationship in a lot of ways, just because we share a daughter, and I don’t wish him anything but everything good.”

Basinger’s most recent on-screen appearance came in 2017 withFifty Shades Darker. As she toldVariety, she isn’t retired from acting and instead is “very picky” and reads “a lot of bad material.”

source: people.com