The one role Tom Cruise was born to play: “I want to make your dreams come true”
Based on what he’s been doing for most of the last 20 years, Tom Cruise operates under the impression that he was born to risk his life in an increasingly preposterous series of death-defying stunts.
At some point, the actor decided that it would become his signature, and you can’t fault his commitment. Even in something like Doug Liman’s American Made, which seemed to provide little scope for such things, he’d fly a plane on-camera, abandon the controls, and fuck around at the rear end for a bit.
Most people who’ve been Hollywood mainstays for as long as he has, which is 40 years and counting, have at least one signature or career-defining role. Does Cruise have that? It’s debatable. You could say Ethan Hunt, but only because he’s played the character eight times across three decades.
However, who is Ethan Hunt? He’s more of a plot device and a cypher than a fully-realised or well-drawn protagonist. Magnolia‘s Frank TJ Mackey? Arguably his best work, but not definitive in the conventional sense. Ron Kovic? Another performance that could be called his best, but Born on the Fourth of July wouldn’t be at the top of the titles listed on his tombstone.
Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell falls into the same camp as the Mission: Impossible protagonist, and there’s also the terrifying prospect that Cruise would probably consider Tropic Thunder‘s Les Grossman as one of his most important roles, since he’s maintained the odd habit of randomly dusting him off for another dance-off.
He doesn’t have his Indiana Jones or Han Solo, his Hannibal Lecter, his Wolverine, his ‘Man with No Name’ or Dirty Harry, his Jules Winnfield, his Travis Bickle, his Neo, or even his Jack Sparrow; iconic and beloved characters who will always come to mind when you think about a specific actor. Unless you’re Cameron Crowe, in which case he has a completely different and much more biased opinion.
As the writer and director of Jerry Maguire, of course, he’d say that Cruise was born to play the title role. On the other hand, it’s one of the leading man’s best-ever performances, won him a Golden Globe, earned him an Academy Award nomination, and entered the zeitgeist, so maybe he’s not wrong.
“He was born to play Jerry Maguire,” the filmmaker stated. “Tom gave me great gifts as a director, because he was the first guy that said, ‘Whatever you want, even if I’m in the middle of a take, tell me. Shout a line out at me. Do whatever you want. I want to make your dreams of this script come true.'”
That’s ironic in itself, since Crowe wrote the part specifically for Tom Hanks, who turned it down. He’s adamant that Cruise was born to be Jerry Maguire, and it wouldn’t be too difficult to state a compelling case for the defence, but he wasn’t even the first choice.
