The one actor Tom Cruise is adamant he’ll work with one day: “Absolutely, it’s gonna happen”
There are many collaborations that have yet to grace our screens despite the fact that everyone is waiting for them to happen. Whether it be the perfect pairing and undeniable genius that would flourish between Nicole Kidman and Michael Haneke, Kieran Culkin and Noah Baumbach or Jordan Peele and Ayo Edebiri, many audiences are waiting with bated breath for the arrival of their favourite duo on screen. However, while film lovers might seem like the most impatient when it comes to the fabled anticipation of a potential project, it seems as though actors are equally as eager to work with those they admire, with Tom Cruise describing the one person he is holding out hope for.
Scarlett Johansson is one of the most captivating performers of her generation, with bold and surprising performances in a range of blockbusters and independent dramas. After starting out in the business as a teenager, starring in absurdist and deadpan comedies like Ghost World, Johansson found global fame through her performance in Lost in Translation, which not only put Sofia Coppola on the map but added a new dimension to her career.
After starring in one of the most successful superhero franchises of all time, Johansson’s magnetic screen presence became front and centre before extending this to the wonderfully weird world of Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbach and Jonathan Glazer, using her image in a tonally opposite way to how audiences were used to seeing her, going against the spandex and high-stakes action of the Marvel universe for something richer and more emotionally dense.
Strangely enough, Cruise has had a similar career trajectory to Johansson, and because of this, they might make for a perfectly unexpected pairing. Cruise has also forged a dynamic creative path through work on high-budget projects and with some of the most infamous auteurs of all time, working with challenging and boundary-breaking directors such as Paul Thomas Anderson and Stanley Kubrick.
When describing his thoughts on working with Johansson, Cruise said, “She’s amazing. There’s a great actress and a movie star”. He expanded on this by expressing his confidence in a potential collaboration between them, saying, “Yes. It’s gonna happen. Look, I’ve watched her career her whole life. She’s enormously talented, very charismatic. It’d be fun. She could do everything. She could do comedy, drama, action, suspense. She’s someone that really draws you in on the screen, on camera. So absolutely, it’s gonna happen.”
Cruise’s confidence is not surprising, as he has a unique kind of power in Hollywood to bring projects to life and find the heartbeat in any story, doing whatever he can to realise a vision on the big screen. He has become equally as reputable over the years for his work as a producer, with many successful actors following the same path as they extend their power to the process of pre-production, using their voice to amplify a story they are desperate to be a part of.
If anyone can convince Johansson to sign onto something, perhaps it will be Cruise.
