Why Tom Cruise will always be jealous of Clint Eastwood: “I wish I had that great story”
It’s hard to imagine Tom Cruise being jealous of anybody. The action icon practically is Hollywood; a living, breathing epitome of the movie business with countless ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ movies under his belt. Whether he’s dangling from zipwires, flying fighter jets, or living, dying, and repeating, Cruise is a star wherever he goes and has built a legacy unlike anyone else.
This wasn’t the case in 2002, however. According to an interview he gave to Vanity Fair, the actor, then aged 40, sounded rather downbeat. He felt like his career was missing something, specifically something that Clint Eastwood had found a decade earlier with the movie Unforgiven.
“I wish I had that great story of Clint Eastwood with Unforgiven,” he said. “He had this script, and he put it away for 10 years, and then went and directed this movie, and starred in this movie. And just had a culmination of an entire career.” He called Eastwood “smart” to recognise the opportunity presented to him with this movie. “That was just perfect for him,” he continued. “And so I don’t have that Unforgiven. I don’t have it.”
The story behind Unforgiven is almost as impressive as the movie itself. The movie, which centres on an old cowboy bounty hunter (Eastwood) forced out of retirement by a big money job, was first dreamt of in 1976, but didn’t come out until 1992. Francis Ford Coppola was originally going to make it and, bafflingly, approached John Malkovich for the main role. Neither man ended up involved in the finished product, as Eastwood ended up with the script at some point in the early 1980s.
As well as starring in the film alongside Morgan Freeman, Gene Hackman, and Richard Harris, Eastwood also directed the piece. This turned out to be an incredibly savvy move, as the film was nominated for nine Oscars. It won four of them; Best Film Editing; Best Supporting Actor for Hackman; Best Director for Eastwood; and Best Picture. Its revisionist take on the Western was revolutionary to the genre and it’s still held up as one of the finest examples of any film in the category. It was preserved by the US National Film Registry in 2004
According to Cruise, it’s not Eastwood’s Oscar success that turned him green with envy. “If it doesn’t happen, I won’t be disappointed,” he said of the Academy Awards. At the time, he’d been nominated three times at the ceremony; twice for Best Actor (Born on the Fourth of July and Jerry Maguire); once for Best Supporting Actor (Magnolia). Since this interview, he’s been up for one more gong – Best Picture as a producer on Top Gun: Maverick – but he missed out on that one too. Good thing Oscars don’t matter that much to him.
Over twenty years on from Cruise’s revelation, he sadly still hasn’t achieved his Unforgiven. This is nothing to do with his abilities or determination and everything to do with how remarkable that film was. This was a movie directed by and starring the cowboy actor that not only dismantled the genre’s stereotypes, but did so in a way that was applauded by the industry. Cruise has never directed anything, nor has he starred in anything that dramatically deconstructed the action hero tropes he helped establish. Eastwood was 62 when he made Unforgiven, the same age Cruise is now. Maybe there is still time for him to finally capture that dream.
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