Today is Tom Cruise’s birthday, and instead of raising a glass and cheering on the screen legend in person (as that was once an option), we rounded up some of Hollywood’s best for their two cents on the man.
After traveling back to the pointy end of the box office in May in his fighter jet for Top Gun: Maverick, Tom is still at the top of the game for decades after storming onto the Hollywood scene in the 1980s.
And while he’s had his fair share of media controversies, most recently including his outburst with the crew during his Mission Impossible production, over strict social distancing guidelines from the pandemic, the man remains beloved not only by fans, but also by are co-stars.
We dug into the Metro archives to gather Tom’s former comrades, from Andrew Garfield to Simon Pegg and Rebecca Ferguson, for their thoughts, yes, musings, about the man, all with a view to birthday parties.
Andrew Garfield, co-star in Lions For Lambs
In an excerpt from Metro’s interview with Spider-Man star Andrew in 2019, he spoke about the revelation he had after working with Tom.
“It was like your first experience in a restaurant – like a seventeen-course Hester Blumenthal beast. I was like, “What am I supposed to do now?” I have to maintain that level of working with people like that. I think it got me going like, ‘Well, I’ve been really spoiled and I want to stay spoiled. I want to continue working at that level.”’
Rebecca Ferguson, co-star in Mission: Impossible
After being asked if she’s friends with Tom and texting him, she replied, “Actually, I text Pegg — Simon — a lot. We are good friends. When was the last time I texted Tom? I’ve got my phone here, so I’ll check… maybe a month ago? But we email. We check each other. When I’ve done something and he’s seen it there’s a ‘congratulations’ and I always hope he takes a little rest, which he never does!
‘He’s always in between or actively making films, but that’s his vacation, right? His vacation is stuck in something that goes very high or very low.’
Simon Pegg, co-star in Mission: Impossible
About why Tom Cruise will definitely make a movie in space, he told Metro: “I’ve joked for years that the only way for the next Mission: Impossible to top the last was to shoot it in space.
“Tom Cruise is clinically amenable to 100% it all the time, so if there’s a chance now for him to make that movie, it’s space, he absolutely will, because my God, everyone was going to see it and you can rest assured that it will be. awesome.’
Tim Peake, worked on Tom’s movie set in space
About the actor’s inspiration: ‘I helped a bit with that in the beginning. Of course, that will be quite a challenge in terms of logistics and what can be accomplished on the space station.
“I always joke that Tom Cruise’s early career pointed the way my life wanted to take. He was a huge hero to me growing up. I was 14 when Top Gun came out, and I had flown with the cadets for two years and was addicted to aviation. And Days Of Thunder – well, I like fast cars. Cocktail – then I went on to become a cocktail bartender when I was 18. That was my first full-time job and I had a great time for a year.’
Jake Johnson, co-star The Mummy
In a 2016 Metro interview, he said: “I remember saying to my wife, ‘I have a chance to play Tom Cruise’s boyfriend in The Mummy, but I don’t know if I want to do it,’ because there were a lot of stunts and I know Tom does them himself and I didn’t want to die on the side of a plane for a movie. And my wife said, “I’ve never said this before, but I really want you to because I really want to hear more about Tom Cruise!” There’s no PR team telling me this, but he’s really just a sweet, passionate, great guy.
What was the scariest stunt? Tom told me, “I want you and I to run and then I want a building to explode as we jump and then land and roll and then I want to keep the dialogue going, so we can’t do that with a stuntman.” And I said to him, “Tom, you got the wrong guy!” But everyone has to do the stunts because he does.
In most movies where there is a helicopter scene, you have stunt people in the helicopter. Then, when it lands, it cuts down on the actors getting out to say their lines. Tom insisted we be in a helicopter and I said, “Tom, I’m in an open helicopter flying over Africa – this is terrifying!” But he was like a kid in a candy store. He loves it.’
Louis Theroux, on why Tom’s dream interviewee
Louis told Metro in 2018: “If access wasn’t an issue, it would be great to follow Tom Cruise. I’d like to see what the Scientology side of his life looks like, get audited or do his Operating Thetan training. To see someone we’ve seen in so many great movies in this religious, sci-fi context would be amazing.”
Lea Thompson, co-star All The Right Moves
Tom saved a Lea from nude scenes she didn’t want to do during 1983’s All The Right Moves.
“This is a funny story about how generous he was. They wanted me to show my boobs twice in the script. I didn’t even audition because I didn’t want to take my shirt off, but I got the part and it was like, “OK.”
“Tom got them from one of the… [nude] scenes, and in the second he said, “Well, if she’s got to be naked, I’ll be naked too.” That’s pretty cool! I’ve always been grateful to him for standing up to the producers.”
MORE: Top Gun: Maverick hits $1,000,000,000 in box office sales, officially becoming Tom Cruise’s highest-grossing film ever
MORE: ‘I’m Still Your Wingman!’ Val Kilmer Dedicates Moving Mail To Tom Cruise After Top Gun: Maverick Reunion
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