No one cares that Tom Cruise told a whopper about his love of stunts
Chapeau to Tom Cruise who has successfully navigated years of being the ‘aggressively weird Scientology guy’ to basically become the face of action-orientated cinema (mostly thanks to the Mission Impossible franchise and probably the best PR team in the world).
The Cruiser’s love of stunts has become legendary over the last 15 years or so. First the stunts were just about being damn cool (literally and figuratively). But with Cruise’s cultish religion rather ruining that image, it became about defying death. Scaling the Burj Khalifa for Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol was probably the breakthrough moment and breaking his leg while shooting MI: Fallout (and continuing with the damn shot) pretty much cemented it.
Far more interesting to ask him about his love of stunts rather than, say, ancient alien planetary ruler Xenu.
For what it’s worth he’s also clung onto the side of a military plane during take off, HALO jumped into Paris and rode a motorbike off a cliff… all in the name of cinema and for the Mission Impossible franchise. There’s a good list here.
Now, there is a long-read to be written about Cruise’s ability to overcome incredibly hostile press and lingering questions over his questionable personal life (likewise Brad Pitt) but this is not that. (Clue: it helps that they’re men and they’re still box office draws).
What I am interested in, for reasons of pedantry, is that Tom Cruise told a whopper at a Cannes Festival event back in 2022 and no one cares – in fact they keep repeating it!
It was announced that Mission Impossible: Final Reckoning (or Mission: Impossible — Final Reckoning depending on your style guide) will be premiering Out of Competition at Cannes next month. The hype levels are already building and the trailer dropped this week.
A moderator breathlessly asked The Cruiser — who is 62, lest we forget — “You risk your life, monsieur. Why do you do it?”
To which Cruise replied: “No one asked Gene Kelly, ‘Why do you dance?’”
Phwoar. What a line. Echoes of The Red Shoes’ immortal exchange:
There’s just one snag for Cruise. It’s not really true.
According to the Los Angeles Times in 1985, Kelly was asked about why he danced, or at the very least, why he got into dancing…
His reply?
“It’s true I didn’t want to be a dancer. What I really wanted to be was a shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Then at 14 I discovered girls, and began to study dancing diligently. At that time dancing was the only way you could put your arm around the girl. Dancing was courtship. Only later did I discover you dance joy. You dance love. You dance dreams. Of course, the Pittsburgh Pirates lost a hell of a shortstop.”
Kelly also spoke about taking up dancing in a 1970 interview with Rex Reed for the Chicago Tribune.
He said:
“I didn’t want to be a dancer. I just did it to work my way through college. But I was always an athlete and gymnast, so it came naturally.”
Alas Cruise saying: “I’m an adrenaline junkie and it’s a great way to get PR for my movies” just doesn’t have the same ring.
Ah well.
