“The fucking king”: why is Paul Thomas Anderson so obsessed with Tom Cruise?
Paul Thomas Anderson and Tom Cruise made one movie together, which was over a quarter of a century ago, and it still remains the beginning and end of their professional partnership. And yet, the filmmaker’s obsession has made their bond look increasingly like a one-way street.
As one of modern cinema’s biggest and most popular figures, Cruise has more fans than most A-listers. The proof is right there in the box office returns dating back four decades, and even though he’s had a few questionable moments in the public eye, his star hasn’t diminished in the slightest.
However, there’s a difference between being a fan of someone and bordering on obsession, with Anderson falling into the latter camp a long time ago. He started off on an understated note, describing him as the “fucking greatest of all time, ever, ever, ever” after they’d wrapped Magnolia.
Continuing to hide his true feelings, the auteur also decided to literally call him the second coming of Jesus Christ, using Cruise’s mother to justify why he found it “very ironic that her name is Mary, considering that she gave birth to Jesus, because he is, you know?” Maybe he found it hard to be friends with someone who held him in such high esteem, not that Anderson shied away from doubling, tripling, and quadrupling down on his adoration.
“I love Tom Cruise more than anyone loves Tom Cruise,” he declared to Bill Simmons. “He’s funny too! Cruise is funny. When you see Tom Cruise onscreen, name me anyone else that can do that right now. Whether in his action films or dramatic films, Cruise is the fucking king if you step back a little bit, and it’s like, ‘Right, game’s on, it’s fucking Cruise.'”
Presumably, Anderson is more devastated than anyone else that the superstar hasn’t been too keen on re-teaming with directors he’s worked with before who aren’t named Christopher McQuarrie, Doug Liman, or Joseph Kosinski. He’s made at least two films with each of them since 2013, but apart from that, he hasn’t reunited with a filmmaker he was familiar with since The Last Samurai‘s Ed Zwick helmed Jack Reacher: Never Go Back.
Is he trying too hard to get in Cruise’s good graces? Perhaps. A popular hybrid of rumour and theory is that when PTA screened The Master for the actor, the longtime Scientologist wasn’t best pleased with the allusions to Ron L Hubbard and his belief system that permeated the picture, speculation that gained traction when Anderson refused to say anything about what happened behind closed doors.
“Yes, I have shown him the film, and yes, we are still friends,” he shared. “The rest is between me and Tom.” That was all he had to say on the matter, but it’s not too difficult to imagine the world’s most famous Scientologist bristling at the fact that a director he knew personally would make something that didn’t jive with his lifestyle.
Is that why he didn’t get the call that Brian De Palma, John Woo, JJ Abrams, and Brad Bird did to take the reins of a Mission: Impossible movie? Probably not, since that gig became exclusively McQuarrie’s after Rogue Nation, but it’s weird that Anderson publicly worships at Cruise’s altar so often when the love-in only flows down one side of the river.
