Let’s be honest, Tom Cruise is Tom Cruise in every film. In the cases of PTA and Kubrick I think it was genius casting—cast a shallow fool to play one. Perfect.
Aw, Tom Cruise is not a shallow fool :(
Maybe not. But he’s also not a very good actor.
Josh, Tom Cruise acts like Tom Cruise except for when he tries to act like Jack Nicholson, which he tried to do a number of times in Eyes Wide Shut
There are actors, and there are personalities. Actors are more selfless and become absorbed in roles. Personalities are more selfish and overwhelm the roles they play, so that we’re always seeing “Tom Cruise playing this person” instead of “Anthony Hopkins really is a butler!” (but let’s not go into Slipstream)
Bergman thought Welles was a personality..
Even still—the character in EWS was trying to act, so my analysis still fits. I think that film is a too often overlooked masterpiece.
i agree with Josh that Kubrick cast him for that reason. that’s if he isn’t joking :-) Iwatched it and thought ‘yep, i bet Tom Cruise is reall this vapid in real life’.
Not joking. I may be too harsh on the guy, but since nuance is lost on a forum that’s essentially how I feel.
“Bergman thought Welles was a personality”
That’s probably true, but he was a great one! :-)
I think EWS is the finest acting Cruise has done.
@Joks: Welles is from Wisconsin, like I am :) Though I didn’t travel all over the world as a child :(
I might take Magnolia over EWS for Cruise at his best.
Call me a heathen, but I also think Interview with the Vampire is great fun.
^^i hated Interview back in 1994, but when i watched it again in 99 on dvd i was pleasantly surprised. it is fun.
Tom was decent in EWS.
He really got into a character in EWS. He was still Tom Cruise in Magnolia and Interview.
Awwww, but come on Uli, the moments that he tries to do Nicholson are some of my favorite in one of my already favorite movies…because they come off as something different than either Cruise OR Nicholson. Kudos to Cruise. I love Cruise’s acting style, for the most part. Even if I presume he’s a weirdo-schmuck in real life.
But maybe this is just a result of watching LEGEND a hundred times on TV as a kid.
Anyways, back to the original question:
Woody Allen casting himself as himself in…everything
Dean Martin in KISS ME STUPID.
Tom Cruise is one of the best actors of the past thirty years. No argument.
Tom Cruise characters always seem to gradually progress from cool, calm and collected to stressed-out, earnest and about to unravel.
But he does play them well…
I really would have loved to have seen Tom Cruise play Patrick Bateman in American Psycho.
Christian Bale isn’t badly cast in that film, but that role is made for Tom Cruise.
“Christian Bale isn’t badly cast in that film, but that role is made for Tom Cruise.”
One could even say that Bale is playing Cruise in the film. Good point. It’s sort of the way Anthony Hopkins plays Malcolm McDowell in The Silence of the Lambs.
When a guy’s greatest performance is jumping on Oprah Winfrey’s couch, he doesn’t deserve his own thread.
“When a guy’s greatest performance is jumping on Oprah Winfrey’s couch, he doesn’t deserve his own thread.”
My favorite Tom Cruise scene:
I think the Oprah thing was when his career started falling drastically. Instead of jumping the shark, he jumped the couch.
@Mike Spence: Per your clip… I must say, I find myself more on Tom’s side than that of the interviewer’s. But I still wasn’t able to stop giggling.
Yes, I suppose no one really deserves that kind of humiliation, but if anyone did at that moment in time, well…
I never intended for this thread to be solely about Tom Cruise…
Though I do think he is a great contemporary american actor.
The problem is, people like him, Jim Carrey or Adam Sandler, and a handful of other actors too, aren’t bad actors they are just in bad films. Alot of America’s actors are being held back by weak, crappy films and not being used to their full potential for example Carrey in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (which I just watched today and thought it was fantastic) or Adam Sandler in Punch Drunk Love (One of my favorite movies of the last ten years.)
Don’t mean to say those are the only ones just some examples.
Sean Pen in I am Sam
Great Tom Cruise performances -
Rainman – playing a much more difficult role opposite a flashy, scene-stealing character
The Colour of Money – as above
A Few Good Men – same again! are you starting to see a pattern of him not getting the credit he deserves?
Born on the 4th of July – you can hardly say he’s playing himself in that
Interview With a Vampire – I don’t particularly like the film but Cruise seems to be the only person in it who understands what kind of film it’s supposed to be
Jerry Maguire – perhaps not a huge stretch for him but actually makes you care about a fairly dull, shallow character
Eyes Wide Shut – carries a great film. Again, a shallow character who doesn’t know what he’s getting into which he shows brilliantly
Magnolia – subverting the shallow image, showing the characters depth in the great deathbed scene with Robards
@Evilphilanthropist:
You know, I agree :) I think he’s a decent actor, relatively speaking. He just has one of those personalities which overpowers his roles, for better or worse. I suggest revisiting The Firm. I watched it recently and I think it’s kind of great :) It made $100 million in three weeks! Sydney Pollack’s last good film. And John Seale shot it, who’s just so gorgeous. It’s a lawyer action thriller with a great supporting cast.
Most obvious actor-playing-themselves performances:
Jack Black in School of Rock
Adam Sandler in Funny People
George Clooney in Up in the Air
Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder
Michael Cera in everything he’s done – do they even tell him he’s in a movie or just follow him around with a camera crew like Bowfinger?
Absolutely right about Michael Cera.
Hidden Behind the Screen
Maybe it was just me but I thought Tom Cruise just pretty much had to act like Tom Cruise in that film, which made his charector so convincing and effective. Maybe it’s just cause I’m a huge fan of that film and of PT Anderson, but I just loved that charector. In the interview scene with the women he seemed exactly like he does in some real life interviews.
Which films do you think contain a similar actor/charector chemisty?