The Tom Cruise movie nobody wanted to star in: “We had seen virtually every actor of the day”
Since around the mid-1980s, an actor turning down a leading role eventually played by Tom Cruise has been virtually impossible, since almost every script that he’s been presented with since then has been written with him in mind and at the very top of the casting wish list.
That’s the way Hollywood works; the biggest parts get offered to the biggest actors, and if they say no, then it gradually works its way down the ladder until somebody signs on. Cruise simply doesn’t do cinematic sloppy seconds, and he hasn’t since Top Gun at least, but that hasn’t always been the case.
Obviously, once he became Tom Cruise: Megastar, he was free to write his own ticket. He didn’t have to wait too long to rise to the A-list, with Tony Scott’s airborne blockbuster only his eighth feature credit, which was still his fifth time being billed first in the cast, so it was clear he was destined for the top.
His first time taking top billing didn’t go too well, although he has admitted that the risible comedy, Losin’ It, taught him a valuable lesson, but he struck gold the second time around. All it took was for the actor Joel Goodsen to slide across a living room floor in his underpants to let audiences know that Risky Business heralded the arrival of a movie star.
Writer and director Paul Brickman wanted to ensure that the coming-of-age comedy’s central pairing had the requisite chemistry to sizzle on the silver screen, but it wasn’t easy to get to that point. In fact, a cavalcade of soon-to-be superstars auditioned for the role, with producer Jon Avent admitting that “there was initially some trepidation” about even seeing Cruise for the part.
“A huge swathe of up-and-coming actors on both coasts came in and read for Joel,” casting director Nancy Klopper told Chicago Magazine. “Kevin Bacon, Sean Penn, John Cusack, Matthew Broderick.” Gary Sinise was also among that number, but none of them were sold on the prospect.
The same sentiment applied to the female lead, Lana, ultimately played by Rebecca De Mornay. “We approached Michelle Pfeiffer, and she passed because she felt the film glamourised prostitution,” Klopper revealed. “Daryl Hannah also passed.” That’s a hell of a line-up, and there were still more to come through the doors.
“We had seen virtually every young actor of the day,” Avent confirmed, adding Tom Hanks and Diane Lane to the list of names who auditioned for Risky Business before Cruise had even gotten his chance. All it took was one scene for the future Mission: Impossible mainstay to be designated as the industry’s next major breakout star, and to think, he was barely even under consideration to begin with.
Fortunately for him, once Bacon, Penn, Cusack, Broderick, Sinise, Hanks, and no doubt several more had been and gone, Joel was his for the taking. He seized it with both hands, and he hasn’t looked back.
