Cruise used a tactic the interviewer had never seen before up until that point.
We cannot compare a single actor to Tom Cruise. It is fair to say that over the last decade, fans have taken more of an interest in his personal life than his acting career. Katie Holmes and personal beliefs aside, Cruise admitted that the crazy lifestyle started long before his fame fortune.
He elaborated alongside The Uncool, “I’ve had such extremes in my life. From being this kind of wild kid, to one year studying to be a Franciscan priest at the seminary….I was very frustrated. I didn’t have a lot of friends. The closest people around me were my family. I think they felt a little nervous about me because I had a lot of energy and I couldn’t stick to one thing. If I worked in an ice-cream store – and I’ve worked in a lot of them – I would be the best for two weeks.”
“Then I was always quitting or getting fired, because I was bored. I feel good about the fact that I finally found something I love. I never lived in one place for very long – that’s the way my whole life has been. I was always packing and moving around, staying in Canada, Kentucky, Jersey, St. Louis – it all helped because I was always learning new accents, experiencing different environments.”
Moving to New York and taking on acting was the major turning point. Along with his success in films like Mission Impossible, came a lot of backlash, especially for his way of life behind the scenes.
Throughout the article, we’ll take a look at some of his more questionable moments, along with his odd tendencies during interviews.
Tom Is A Strict Guy On-Set
There’s a couple of celebs that have opened up to Tom’s ways on-set. Annabelle Wallis was one of them, according to the actress, Cruise had some odd rules when it came to running with him on-screen, “I got to run on-screen with him, but he told me no at first. He said, ‘Nobody runs on-screen [with me],’ and I said, ‘But I’m a really good runner,'” Wallis said. “So, I would time my treadmill so that he’d walk in and see me run. And then he added all these running scenes. So, that was it.”
“It was, like, better than an Oscar. I was so happy! I was so happy that I got to run on-screen with Tom Cruise,” she said.
According to Crusie, being aggressive is a big part of finding success, “I am very aggressive. You’ve got to be aggressive; there’s too much responsibility not to be. When you look at Taps, a lot of that character was my childhood. I wasn’t intense like that, but the character is just fear. That’s what he does when he’s afraid – he fights. I have an aggressive side, absolutely. I need a creative outlet. Now I work out every day. I get up and work out 45 to 60 minutes. And that’s how I start my day. Discipline is very important to me.”
Turns out that Tom is just as disciplined when it comes to interviews. According to People editor Kate Coyne, Cruise was very particular with how the interview should be conducted. He even used a tactic she had never seen before up until that point.
Tom Brought A Recorder
So imagine the scenario, you’re about to interview Tom Cruise and in comes his publicist, pushing the record button on a recorder.
That’s right, Tom Cruise records every interview which according to Coyne, is a very smart tactic, “To this day, he is the only celebrity to have recorded an interview that I was recording,” Coyne writes. “When I think about how much sense it makes for a celebrity, particularly one known for having to handle controversy, to have proof of what they said, I’m surprised more subjects don’t do this.”
The interview went very well, despite the recorder.
We can’t say the same for Cruise’s interview over 15 years ago alongside Matt Lauer on ‘Today’, things took an awkward twist between the two. As Tom says, he’s an aggressive guy when it comes to things that he’s passionate about… we guess.
Here’s to hoping we see many more interviews with Cruise in the future.
