Say what you will about the man, but Tom Cruise is not just one of the most iconic movie stars of all time but he’s a certified bad ass. Whether it’s dangling off of the tallest skyscaper in the world or piloting an F-18 in Top Gun 2: Maverick the man is constantly doing things that make insurance companies sweat and that no other actor of his caliber would think about doing. Why does he do it? Possibly a bit of an adrenaline addiction but the real reason is that he knows it just looks better on screen, he wants the audience to get what they pay for and that’s something I respect more then anything else. What about all the weird stuff in the tabloids? Number 1, who cares. Number 2, if it means I’ll be able to do half of what he’s doing at 57 maybe there’s something to all this Scientology jazz. Cruise recently sat down with Empire to talk about the upcoming film, he had this to say regarding the use of CGI and stunt pilots:
“…I REALIZED that there were things that we could accomplish cinematically. And I started getting excited about this big challenge of, ‘How do we do it?’ So I said to Jerry, ‘I’ll do it if…’ meaning, I’m not going to do the CGI stuff.”
Jerry, of course being another legendary name in the biz, Jerry Bruckheimer. It’s one thing to take this stance when you’re talking about a sword fight, or even jumping off a 2-story building, but flying freakin’ fight jets? No one else could do it, and not just physically, the amount of sway it takes to have a studio approve the insurance on something like this? It’s insane.
One thing’s for sure, this wasn’t just a late in life cash grab by the veteran actor, he’s setting out to do something that’s never been done before and the end result will be something that none of us will want to miss.
