The one and only person in Hollywood who fired Tom Cruise: “It’s based on his behaviour”
The sky is blue, water is wet, and Tom Cruise doesn’t get fired in Hollywood. These are all facts of life, and it took a braver soul than most to give one of cinema’s most untouchable superstars their marching orders, which inevitably sent the A-lister and his team on the defensive.
Since the 1980s, Cruise has been perched right at the top of the A-list, and at no point has he ever looked like coming down. It’s one of the longest unbroken runs that any actor has enjoyed, and he’s repaid that faith by delivering hit after hit, evolving into one of the art form’s staunchest and oddest defenders.
When you’re one of the highest-paid names in the business, one of the highest-grossing actors in history, and one of the few people who can be relied on to open a film at the box office based on nothing but the fact you’re in it, it’s reasonable to assume that nobody’s going to come barging into your office and tell you to fuck off.
However, hopping around on a sofa like a man possessed would do the trick, as the Mission: Impossible leading man, producer, and creative driving force discovered when his infamous appearance on Oprah Winfrey’s show, coupled with his Scientology-heavy diatribes in the media, saw him unceremoniously booted by Paramount chief Sumner Redstone.
Cruise had called the studio home for years, earned it billions at the box office, and had usurped Eddie Murphy as its in-house golden goose. And yet, all it took were a couple of self-sabotaging promotional appearances to undo all of that hard work, with Redstone going so far as to release a statement confirming that he was officially persona non grata on the studio lot.
Naturally, his team claimed that he hadn’t been fired but quit of his own accord, which his former boss rebuffed. “As much as we like him personally, we thought it was wrong to renew his deal,” the mogul shared. “His recent conduct has not been acceptable to Paramount.” It devolved into mud-slinging, too, with Redstone accusing Cruise of being the world’s biggest turn-off. No, really, he said that to the press.
In response to the very public dressing-down, Cruise’s long-time producing partner, Paula Wagner, refused to dignify the company’s “stupid statement” with an answer, while Redstone’s official spokesperson, Carl Folta, doubled down: “It’s a business decision, and it’s based on his behaviour.”
Attempting to take it in his stride, Cruise and Wagner decided to take on Paramount at its own game by resurrecting and relaunching United Artists, which didn’t go according to plan when its first two high-profile films that were anchored by the fallen star, Lions for Lambs and Valkyrie, fell short of expectations among critics and in cinemas.
Tropic Thunder‘s Les Grossman was even inspired by Redstone as the feud continued to simmer, but because money always talks loudest in Hollywood, the fences were mended several years later when Cruise was welcomed back into the fold and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol was greenlit, with the guy who fired him even claiming in 2012 that the reinstated actor was “one of my best friends.”
