The only time Tom Cruise went method: “They’re gonna know it’s me”
Tom Cruise is a movie star in the most classic sense. He is so recognisable that acting is beside the point. When he’s on-screen, it doesn’t matter if he’s playing Ethan Hunt or Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell or Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg – he’s Tom Cruise, and that’s all that matters. Even when he let his hair down and played a balding, sweary studio executive in the 2008 comedy Tropic Thunder, 80% of the humour was down to the fact that it was Cruise who was playing the character, not the character itself.
Tom Cruise doesn’t need anyone’s pity, but it is also true that being a movie star has its downsides. Everyone thinks they know you, for one thing, and you’re never able to go out in public without the very real probability that someone will want you to sign something or give them a hug. As problems go, it’s not exactly on par with starvation or homelessness, but for the people who experience it, it can be a hassle, especially when it actively inhibits them from disappearing into a character.
For Cruise, all this came to a head in 2004 when he was working on the Michael Mann neo-noir Collateral. The film stars Jamie Foxx as a Los Angeles taxi driver who unknowingly picks up a hitman, played by Cruise, who has five murders to commit that night and needs transportation. As Vincent, Cruise is a blood-chilling sociopath who spouts casual vitriol about humanity with the ease and eloquence of a philosopher.
The part had originally been intended for Russell Crowe, whose hulking frame, husky voice, and rugged features would have made him an ideal fit for an assassin who has to be convincingly sinister but also move through crowds unnoticed. But Cruise was more than up to the task. Speaking to Deadline in 2022, director Michael Mann talked about how Cruise went method for the role and executed one of his greatest performances.
“It was a very different character for him, and I knew Tom would throw himself into whatever I needed to take him through to become that assassin,” Mann said. Citing the rigorous combat training that the actor undertook, he revealed another way in which the star prepared to disappear into his character.
“Obviously, people know Tom, but I wanted him to feel what it would be like to blend in, to mix with people and have conversations,” the director said. “He went to Central Market and trained to be a FedEx delivery guy. He said to me, ‘They’re gonna know it’s me.’ I said, ‘No, they’ll see the sign that says FedEx, and you’ll wear sunglasses and a cap and carry that portable computer that drivers used to have when they made deliveries.’”
Adding: “Tom went in and delivered something to a liquor stand and sat down and struck up a conversation with a couple people and insinuated himself into the lives of others. There was a lot of psychological training he did. Tom is a dream. He sees the adventure in what we do, just the way I do, and I imagine other directors do. He just goes for it.”
The hard work paid off. Vincent is one of Cruise’s best roles and one of the few instances where he has been able to shed the glitz and glamour of movie stardom in favour of the sleazy grime of neo-noir. It’s tempting to imagine the actor taking the skills he learned in pre-production into the rest of his life, casually blending in with crowds and enjoying the frustrations of a normal person, but in the two decades since Collateral was released, his star has only gotten brighter, and it’s hard to believe he could pull off that stunt again any time soon.
