Tom Cruise roots for the entertainment industry.
“I like to see people doing well. I know things don’t just happen. I know it’s not just luck. You have to create that happiness. You have to want to make it happen. I want you to know that I’m always rooting for you. Fingers crossed for all of you,” he said as he accepted the David O. Selznick Achievement Award at the PGA Awards 2023 on Saturday night
Presenting the award to Cruise, Sherry Lansing described the star as “someone I love, someone I respect and someone I’m in awe of.” The annual Producers Guild award is given for an extraordinary body of work in motion pictures. Past winners include Stephen Spielberg, Barbara Broccoli and Mary Parent. Lansing was the director of Cruise’s second film Cranes and was running Paramount Pictures when Cruise was starring and producing the first Mission Impossible movie.
“He used to sit in the projection booth where no one could see him or hide in the back of theaters so he could see the audience’s reactions,” Lansing recalled.
Cruise’s latest movie Top gun: Maverick has earned nearly $1.5 billion at the worldwide box office since its release and has earned recognition from critics and award organizations, including a Best Picture Oscar nomination. Earlier this month, at the Oscar-nominated luncheon where Cruise made a much-discussed appearance, Spielberg praised Cruisesaying, “You saved Hollywood, and maybe you saved theatrical distribution.”
“I spent many hours in his house and at his table talking about movies,” Spielberg’s Cruise said during his acceptance speech. “It was at his dining room table that I met Brian De Palma.” Cruise went on to say that he stayed up all night watching all of De Palma’s movies and called the next day to offer him the first-day directing job. Mission Impossible movie.
In his speech, Cruise thanked other longtime employees such as Christopher McQuarrie and Jerry Bruckheimer. The actor ended his speech by offering, “The better each studio does, the better each movie does, the better we all do and the better it is for everyone. So I look forward to seeing what you make in the future, and I will continue to do everything I can to contribute and help this industry and this art form that I love.”