Tom Cruise is undoubtedly one of Hollywood’s last-standing true film stars. Regardless of that stature, Cruise always puts in the hard work and effort required to make his movies tick. In an interview with Collider’s Steve Weintraub on the premiere of his latest Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One which is receiving some enthusiastic early reactions, Cruise talked about how he challenges himself with each new movie and the level of preparation he puts into the film’s action sequences.
Cruise loves the notion of challenging himself. It’s one of the key reasons why he tries besting his previous stunts or efforts with each successive movie. Cruise himself describes it almost as a compounding effect: taking everything learned from prior movies and putting it in the next one.
I try to take everything that I’ve learned my entire career and put it in the next movie, and put it in the next movie, and the next movie, in terms of structure, storytelling, and character development.
Off late though, Cruise is not just a star. He’s also producing these movies and has an active stake and compensation attached to the film’s box office, benefitting heavily from the stupendous box-office run of Top Gun: Maverick. Being a producer brings its own responsibilities though, something Cruise got a sense of when he was caught on tape yelling at his crew for flouting COVID protocols and putting the production of Mission: Impossible 7 at risk. While he wasn’t candid about this incident, he did speak to the level of preparation and effort required to keep the film’s crew functional and going.
As a producer, in terms of how I produce the film, how I can better prepare my cast, my crew for the adventure that we’re embarking on. So those are the things that I think about. I’m constantly challenging myself. I’m both a student every single day, I’m constantly studying, and also a teacher because I’m constantly having to kind of work with people to go, ‘This is movies for me and for us,’ and to also bring their voices into our film.
One of Cruise’s signature feats has been his insistence on performing his own stunts. Naturally, he was asked about the reaction of his fellow cast and crew members when filming them. Cruise admitted to being oblivious to their concerns when he’s rehearsing for and performing his stunts, describing himself as being way into them to notice anything around him.
I don’t know! I don’t gauge their nervousness. I know I’ve done some wild things, I know I’ve done some wild things. I think you probably have a better way to look at it than I do because I’m so inside of them when I’m doing it.
He then proceeded to elaborate that all his risk-taking stems from making movies for an audience first. Imagining himself as a viewer, Cruise essentially makes what he’d himself like to see, while also expressing his love for cinema spanning multiple genres and films.
I just know what we try to do with these films, and actually all of my movies. You know, I remember as an audience member, which I am first and foremost, and as a filmmaker, I make my movies for audiences, but I like a wide range of cinema, so I’ve always wanted to challenge myself in a wide range of genres and styles to understand each one. I’d go into it and study each one as I was making it and test my abilities.
We’ll find out just how much Cruise’s stunt and producing abilities were put to the test once Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One releases in theaters on July 12, 2023.
