Tom Cruise on the “incredibly patient” work of Stanley Kubrick
There are very few directors who would turn down the opportunity to work with the box-office banker Tom Cruise, and while the New York-born actor is more than capable of handling himself in stunt-heavy action movies, he’s also shown versatility in playing more dramatic roles.
Cruise has starred in movies by acclaimed directors such as Barry Levinson, Rob Reiner, Sydney Pollack, Paul Thomas Anderson, Steven Spielberg, Michael Mann and countless others, a list that shows very few filmmakers can resist the temptation of Cruise for a lead role.
But of all the fantastic directors that Cruise has had the fortune of performing for, there are few as legendary as Stanley Kubrick. The two cinema icons worked together on Kubrick’s final film, Eyes Wide Shut, an erotic psychological drama also starring Cruise’s then-wife Nicole Kidman.
In a 1999 interview, Cruise explained what it was like to work with Kubrick and admitted that he was beyond impressed by the director’s dedication to his craft. According to the actor, “the most important thing” to Kubrick when he was making a film was time rather than things like budget.
He explained: “When he was writing a movie, he was writing it; when he was directing the movie, he was directing it; when he was editing the movie, he was editing it. Each element of the picture takes time; ideas take time.” Kubrick understood that notion and put it into practice when making his masterpieces.
“He was always incredibly patient, he worked non-stop,” Cruise went on. “I’d get faxes from him three or four in the morning. I’d look at it the next morning. So, he never wasted time; he knew the importance of time.” Kubrick never felt bound by the structure of production, which was beneficial to the cast and crew.
The actor added that Kubrick never felt regrets over his directing choices because they had been given ample room and time to develop. He said: “Sometimes you look back and think, ‘Now I know why, now I have the idea I was looking for.’ Stanley would take that time to allow it to evolve.”
Kubrick would also rewrite every single day. “Rewrote, rewrote, rewrote,” Cruise said. “Even when he’s cutting, he’s rewriting and reworking.” The experience on the Eyes Wide Shut set was “intimate”, according to Cruise, because Kubrick could operate the camera, meaning that some scenes could be done with just Cruise, Kidman and the legendary director. But it all came down to Kubrick tirelessly working on his films.
Check out the trailer for Eyes Wide Shut below.
