How Tom Cruise persuaded Francis Ford Coppola to cast him in ‘The Outsiders’
Today, Tom Cruise stands as one of Hollywood’s greatest living actors. Following a critically commended appearance in 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick, Cruise’s career, which was by no means faltering, has enjoyed a glowing resurgence. As he basks in the success of his latest movie, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, the babyfaced 61-year-old shows no signs of slowing down.
During a 2015 conversation with Film School Rejects, Cruise’s frequent collaborator Cameron Crowe revealed that Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood thinks Cruise is one of his generation’s finest talents. “I met Clint Eastwood once. I asked him about Chris Penn because he had worked with Chris Penn on Pale Rider,” Crowe recalled.
Adding: “We were talking about what an amazing guy Chris Penn was, and for some reason, we got on the subject of Tom [Cruise]. Clint Eastwood said, ‘100 years from now and more, people will look back on this generation of films, and the guy who will stand out more than anyone else will be Tom Cruise.'”
“Coming from Clint Eastwood, like, a foot-and-a-half away from you telling you that, I couldn’t wait to tell Tom that! [Laughs] I think it’s true,” the director added. “You could create an argument for a number of other actors, but I don’t know anyone who’s built this kind of body of work in movies that will stand the test of time, and I would be honoured if one of our movies was a part of that. He’s done so many different, time-defining projects.”
Eastwood and Crowe aren’t the only directors and peers to have singled Cruise out over the past four decades. Beyond his seamless acting ability, Cruise has proven himself to be one of the industry’s most devoted members, throwing himself into each role with childlike enthusiasm and professional maturity. As an added bonus, his fearless nature often allows directors to reduce their stuntman budgets significantly.
Cruise’s enthusiasm is nothing new: throughout his early rise to prominence in the 1980s, the star’s tenacity scored him crucial formative roles. Following his debut movie role in 1981’s Taps, Cruise joined the cast for the poorly received 1983 comedy Losin’ It. Speaking to Cameron Crowe in 1986 for a feature with Interview magazine, Cruise explained how he managed to follow up Losin’ It with a role in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Outsiders.
“I learned the things I wanted and the things I didn’t want,” Cruise began. “I got a new agent and thought, ‘I have to work with good people and good directors and grow.’ I heard about the movie, and I came out to Los Angeles and stayed at Emilio’s [Estevez] house over Christmas. And I stayed at the Penn’s house in the summer. That’s when Sean was doing Fast Times.”
“I just went to Francis and said, ‘Look, I don’t care what role you give me, I really want to work with you,” he added. “I want to be there with all these young actors.’ That was a hell of a good time. I just wanted a wide body of work. After Taps came out, I was offered every horror film, every killer-murderer part. I told this one agent that I wanted to work with Francis. He said, ‘Francis! He’s not going to pay you anything!’ It was never a main role, but I created something. That was where I learned I had a sense of comedy. I still wanted to work with Francis again.”
Meanwhile, during a 2021 conversation with The Guardian, Coppola discussed how he enjoyed offering chances to young actors, describing Cruise as an enthusiastic, “intense” youngster. “If my company was famous for anything, it was casting new, unknown actors,” he said. “I believed in the concept of open casting calls – but I tried to do them in a way that was appropriate for the film we were making.”
“For The Outsiders, I had all the candidates – which included Nicolas Cage, Mickey Rourke, Robert Downey Jr, Patrick Swayze, Dennis Quaid, Matt Dillon, Rob Lowe and Emilio Estevez – sitting on benches in a circle watching each other trying for the different parts,” he continued. “No one knows more about acting than other actors. Tom Cruise, who ended up in a small role, was an intense kid who would do anything to make his part better.”
Watch the trailer for The Outsiders below.
