How the one movie Tom Cruise disowned made him a superstar: “It had things I love”
Ever since he went ballistic on Oprah Winfrey’s couch, Tom Cruise has evolved into a persona instead of a person, with his oddball antics becoming career-defining moments, for better or worse.
These days, he doesn’t talk about anything in public except movies or popcorn. His cringeworthy declaration of love on Winfrey’s sofa, coupled with a couple of heavy-handed celebrations of Scientology that generated a wave of bad buzz, convinced Cruise to keep himself off-limits.
He used to be a relatively open book who’d happily answer personal questions, but those days are in the past. If anyone wants to ask Cruise anything, they’d better make sure it’s related to cinema; otherwise, he’ll simply redirect the conversation to the silver screen.
The Mission: Impossible frontman has always seemed like a strange guy, and it’s telling that he was the inspiration behind Christian Bale’s performance as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho. He’s always been driven, and as far back as the mid-1980s, he knew he was destined to become the biggest star in Hollywood.
Aside from being a blockbuster franchise helmer, the actor is no stranger to left-field films either, but he lost out on a role in Terry Gilliam’s Brazil because he refused to tape his audition. The filmmaker revealed that Cruise didn’t film himself because he didn’t want the footage to resurface when he became a household name. Confident and a little arrogant, sure, but right on the money.
Instead, he signed on for Ridley Scott’s Legend, a decision he came to regret. The fantasy flick has developed a cult following over the last four decades, but it was a nightmare from start to finish. Behind-the-scenes difficulties, arguments over the final cut, and a fire raging through Pinewood Studios made it an experience to regret, so much so that Cruise swore he’d never make another movie in the same genre.
The director felt the same way, and the actor hasn’t publicly mentioned Legend in a very long time. However, despite distancing himself as far as possible from a picture he hated making and would rather delete from history than acknowledge, it nudged him in the direction of the A-list.
Ridley’s brother was also an up-and-coming director, and he had a script that he was confident would pique the fast-rising actor’s interest. “They first offered me the film in 1983,” he recalled, “At the time, I was off in London working with Ridley Scott, and I remember I didn’t address Top Gun during that time period, I was focused on shooting Legend.”
During those months, Matthew Modine turned down the part of Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell to make Full Metal Jacket with Stanley Kubrick instead, and by the time Cruise was reaching the finish line on Legend, the lead remained available, with a nudge from the older Scott sibling sending him down the path.
“In 1984, Ridley said, ‘You’ve gotta meet my brother’,” Cruise recounted, “‘He’s going to direct this film, Top Gun‘. It had things I love: movies and aviation”. With the Legend debacle finally behind him, he read the script, met the director, signed on for the picture, and it turned him into a superstar. Almost 40 years after its release, he still hasn’t come down from his perch.
