Tom Cruise just keeps on truckin'. His career, now entering its third decade, stands almost without parallel, his memorable roles too numerous to count. Achieving instant stardom in 1983's "Risky Business," the blockbuster hits haven't stopped since. From having a need for speed in "Top Gun," to not being able to handle the truth in "A Few Good Men," and being completed by Ren?©e Zellweger in "Jerry Maguire," Cruise has just about done it all. The Daily, along with other college papers, caught up with the superstar promoting his upcoming film "War of the Worlds," directed by Steven Spielberg and due out June 29.
Question: Despite performances in Kubrick and P.T. Anderson films, you still have kind of a reputation as a Mr. Hollywood action hero type. Do you think you will ever be able to escape that reputation? Or do you even want to?
Tom Cruise: I don't really care. (Laughing) I don't really care. Listen, that's not important. What is important to me is I make the movies that I want to make. What people say about me doesn't matter. It really doesn't. I get to make all the movies that I want to make, and I am incredibly proud of that.
Q: In your movies, you've portrayed a wide array of characters. Which character is most truly like you?
TC: They are all different. I don't know which ones. I know that certain films ... this movie where I play a father is actually different than I am, because I am not a deadbeat dad; I always wanted to be a father. When I look at films, the "The Last Samurai" to me, is right on there with what I believe is a man. It is the journey of a man who believes essentially that he is his body. He then learns that he is a spiritual being and he learns about integrity and honor and regains that in life. That is something that I believe as a man. But, still, I am different than Algren [Cruise's character in War of the Worlds.] I cannot say...I am sure people can look at it and say there are different aspects of characters that are me that you cannot get away with because they are intimate to me. "Collateral," that guy is not like me at all. (Laughing). Very different. You know, it is hard to say. I really don't know actually. There are little pieces in characters.
Q: Do you have an actor out there that has kind of been a role model to you or somebody that you have looked up to throughout your career?
TC: My first hero as a kid and always was, was Muhammad Ali. I remember being four or five years old and he was an inspiration to me. Actors that I have loved growing up definitely was Paul Newman, it was [Dustin] Hoffman, it was [Gene] Hackman. Those actors that I grew up looking at their movies and they inspired me. Years later when I got to meet them it was... you know here I was sitting across from Paul Newman and I remember as a little kid seeing "The Sting" and then later on seeing "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." I saw it on television and stuff like that later. Certainly I dug Clint Eastwood movies, "The Outlaw Josey Wales." I convinced my cousin and her girlfriend to get me into that movie. I spent a lot of my life convincing people to take me to movies. I worked so I could have money to go to the movies. Those R rated movies, I convinced my cousins and sisters to take me.
Q: There is a scene in "Collateral" where you were running after Jamie Foxx and you threw a chair and you broke the glass and then you tripped over the chair.
TC: Yes, that hurt. Going through that window - that just happened. You want accidents and you don't want to get hurt in those accidents. But the way the chair hit, that fall just occurred and we just kept going.
Q: So looking back on your career what have you found to be your most rewarding acting experience? Which roles do you think were ultimately your best? Are those two necessarily related?
TC: No, I think it is kind of ... every experience that I have had has been rewarding for me. Even when I started out as an actor, I always thought you know what? It doesn't matter. I know I can work, meaning, I am not even talking about working as an actor. I know I am someone who can take care of himself. So I am going to do what I want to do and live my life the way that I think is best.
Q: As an actor do you have any sort of defined goals that you try to strive for?
TC: You know what I look for is not limiting myself. It is important as an artist that you find your own voice and that you find your own voice in a character. There are people out there who want to invalidate you and they become quite critical of their own, which is truly not the job of the artist. The artist's job is to create, and you have to just create and be just creating and creating and creating.
