(Credit: Alamy)
Tom Cruise is one of the most elusive men in Hollywood, fluctuating between being widely loved, misunderstood and feared through strangely contradictory behaviours that have led to a puzzling reputation. After starring in beloved commercial franchises such as Mission: Impossible and Top Gun and daring independent dramas like Eyes Wide Shut, Magnolia and A Few Good Men, the actor is respected for his ferocious love of film and impassioned approach towards his craft.
However, after rumours about questionable antics behind the scenes and heated talk show interviews, some also seem to tread on eggshells around him, remaining hesitant about his true colours. But alas, people like Cruise thrive best in Hollywood, which might be why one of his worst films became so commercially successful and the foundation of his special niche in the industry.
Over the years, Cruise has used his expertise in the film industry to help advocate for independent films and projects that struggle to find their way into the world, becoming well-versed in the logistics of the business after decades of working in the industry. After seeing multiple films through the process of financing and production, he now has an equally creative and rational approach towards filmmaking that has helped him overcome many of the classic obstacles in lifting a project off the ground.
Many people in Hollywood are sadly familiar with the constant uphill battle of filmmaking, with surprises that sometimes shine a light on uncomfortable truths about the nature of entertainment and the demands of mass audiences. For Cruise, this was a lesson he learnt very early on after starring in the 1988 film Cocktail, which wasn’t a particularly good film but happened to be hugely commercially successful at the time of its release.
When discussing the release of the film, Cruise said, “By Sunday morning, everyone called me. Jeffrey [Katzenberg, then the studio head at Disney, which produced Cocktail] called me and said, ‘Congratulations. You are now able to open a movie. It’s one of the biggest openings in Disney history.’ Something like $11million. And in some weird way, you know, that really changed everything. That became, as far as the business side, a defining moment in terms of me getting certain pictures made, like Born on the Fourth of July. I didn’t even really grasp what it meant at that time. And only later do you kind of look at it”
The process of making this film helped Cruise understand something crucial about the business of filmmaking – learning how to sell a picture and tap into the desires of your audience. His early experiences with commercial success gave him a more concrete grasp on the dynamics off-screen that play into the success of a film. However, he also explained the downfalls to this level of success, saying, “You can’t get messed up … cannot cannot cannot get mixed up in the power games and the gross games. Because then you start making decisions that aren’t organic to what you want to do, and you’re going to be very dissatisfied with the choices you make. If your choices are based on grosses and the film doesn’t do well, what does that mean? It leaves you with nothing. I’ve always felt that”.
While Cocktail was by no means a great film, it was one of the most formative experiences in his career in building an understanding of the inner workings of the business and how to market himself, all while learning the importance of maintaining his creative integrity. It is through this that Cruise has been able to forge the career he has today; protecting the projects he most believes in and knowing when to use the left side of his brain to fight for a story he really believes in.
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