How did “Risky Business” teen student Tom Cruise become a world-class movie star?

An underrated trendsetter, Tom Cruise in the 80’s

You’ve been watching movies featuring Tom Cruise since the 80s. What was your first Tom Cruise movie?

Namba: I have been following all of his movies in real time, so I have seen his debut movie, “Endless Love” (1981, Franco Zeffirelli). But of course, I did not know the name of Tom Cruise at that time, and he played a minor role in the film, appearing on screen for less than a minute.

Namba: It was “Risky Business” (1983, Paul Brickman) that I started to become clearly aware of Tom Cruise after that. The famous scene where he comes skidding across the screen in his underwear and starts dancing was frequently shown in TV commercials. I just had the impression that it looked really interesting, but it was still an unknown quantity. I saw the movie in real time, but I thought he was a young actor who could also do comedy. I saw the movie in real time, but my impression was that he was a young actor who could also act in comedies.

Namba: Once there, I was no longer aware of Tom Cruise’s name, but I was quite shocked by “The Color of Money” (1986, Martin Scorsese), which was released three years later. After all, “The Color of Money” was a movie starring Paul Newman, who is naturally a great actor, but Tom Cruise’s presence was more prominent.

And he played the lead role in the so-called blockbuster “Top Gun” (1986, Tony Scott), which was released around the same time. And I was surprised at the change, wondering if that was the same young man who danced around in his underpants in “Risky Business.” From a coming-of-age movie to a Scorsese film, and then to a fighter pilot of great skill. The range of his career is huge. I thought to myself, “Here is a new actor who is going to lead Hollywood in the future. I had no idea that he would remain at the top of Hollywood for nearly 40 years, but those two films convinced me that he will definitely lead Hollywood in the future.

Namba: Incidentally, perhaps due to the influence of “The Color of Money,” the streets of Japan at that time were filled with billiard halls. It became such a social phenomenon that everyone started playing billiards, and young people, including myself as a college student, really played billiards all the time. Also, until then, there must have been a mixture of various games such as “four-ball”. But with the hit of “The Color of Money,” the “nine-ball” rule played in the play became completely mainstream in billiards.

Furthermore, due to the influence of “Top Gun” in the same year, I remember that the Ray-Ban sunglasses worn by Tom Cruise sold like hotcakes. I don’t think they would look good on a Japanese person, though (laughs). I wouldn’t go so far as to call this a social phenomenon, but I think it was a great opportunity for the Ray-Ban brand to gain recognition. As was the case with the leather jacket he wore in the movie, Tom Cruise had already transcended the boundaries of the movie industry and created a movement even when he was in his 20s.

Besides such a movement, how was Tom Cruise perceived as an actor then?

Namba: Perhaps there is a section that still exists today, but Tom Cruise was only recognized as a one-dimensional, second-rate actor who was not good at acting. In the movie magazines of the time, for example, there were many comments such as “Paul Newman is great, but Tom Cruise is just a decoration idol,” or in the case of “Rain Man” (1988, Barry Levinson), “Dustin Hoffman is great, but Tom Cruise is not. In “Cocktail” (1988, Barry Levinson), there were many comments such as “Dustin Hoffman is great but Tom Cruise is not. The evaluation of “Cocktail” (1988, Roger Donaldson) was particularly harsh.

However, the film critics who gave it a fair evaluation were Choji Yodogawa and Shigehiko Hasumi, who said, “Rather than Dustin Hoffman, it’s Tom Cruise. In their discussion, Mr. Hasumi said, “Tom Cruise takes Dustin Hoffman’s exaggerated performance in a very elegant way,” and Mr. Yodogawa said, “I think Tom Cruise is a great actor. He is a good boy. (*1) I thought, “That’s great of him. (*1) Even so, I think Tom Cruise was generally regarded as an idol actor at that time. If you said, “I like Tom Cruise,” you were looked down upon. I think that kind of atmosphere existed in the air from that time.

*1 “Eiga ni meguru mitekuru kotoba-hen” (Dazzled by Movies: The Oral Arc) (Hasumi Shigehiko / 1995 / Chuokoron-sha) p.578

From veterans to promising young filmmakers, his shift in collaboration in filmmaking

When do you think was his turning point as an actor?

Namba: I am not sure about the turning point. Up until the ’80s, Tom Cruise was always making a good job of using both films to test his abilities as an actor and films to show off his looks as an idol actor. I think “Top Gun” and “The Color of Money” are the perfect examples. “Rain Man” and “Cocktail,” “Days of Thunder” (1990, Tony Scott) and “Born on the Fourth of July” (1989, Oliver Stone) were also made around the same time.

Moreover, not only do you always work with master directors in films that showcase their acting, but you also work with actors who are a year or two older than you in terms of career and age. What is even more amazing is that both Dustin Hoffman and Paul Newman have won Academy for their work with Tom Cruise. In other words, not only did they absorb film-making and acting techniques from veterans, but they also improved the overall quality of the film by appearing in it themselves, and at the same time, they brought great benefits to their counterparts.

This is a stance that has not changed to this day. By putting the other person first, the overall quality of the film improves, and because the quality of the film improves, your own status as a performer inevitably improves as well. The amazing thing about Tom Cruise is that he continues to create this kind of structure.

Christopher McQuarrie, the director of “Mission: Impossible: Fallout” (2018), said in the making of the Blu-ray bonus that Tom always directs his co-stars to stand up for themselves, not himself. This is the “after you” stance in the “Mission: Impossible” franchise, and I guess the policy is “you guys should stand out from yourselves (Tom Cruise)”.

That’s because he didn’t only play his role as an actor but overviewed the whole process as a producer. 

Namba: In interviews, Tom Cruise often says, “I don’t want to stand out, I just want the movie to stand out.

What surprised me about his producer’s temperament is that in 1994, Spielberg made “Schindler’s List” and “Jurassic Park” at the same time, which seem to be the exact opposite of each other in terms of subject matter. screenwriter (David Cope) to write the screenplay for “Mission: Impossible”. At the time, I was tongue-tied by this horrendous selection, wondering what kind of producer would do such a thing.

Namba: Also, Janusz Kaminski shot Spielberg’s films after “Schindler’s List,” and although he was not the first, “Jerry Maguire” (1996, Cameron Crowe) starring Tom Cruise was also the first to use him in a non-Spielberg film. Although he doesn’t say it, I feel Tom Cruise has learned much from Spielberg.

He’s also on top of promising young directors such as J.J. Abrams, Christopher McQuarrie, and Joseph Kosinski for “Top Gun: Maverick” (2022).

Namba: Around the time of “Mission: Impossible 3” (2006), we started to select young talents. Until then, as I mentioned earlier, we were in the era of learning film by working with so-called master directors. Until the 20th century, Tom Cruise would work with established directors to elevate the quality of his films and absorb something of theirs. However, I wonder if he thought, “From now on, I have to lead the film industry myself. Perhaps he felt that he had already done enough with the great directors, having worked with Kubrick and Spielberg, who were, so to speak, the pinnacle of cinema (laughs).

Namba: Amidst all this, “Mission: Impossible 3” was the first theatrical film directed by J.J. Abrams, a TV producer at the time. For “Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol” (2011), Brad Bird, who had previously worked as an animation director at Pixar, was chosen for the first time to direct a live-action film.

Then Christopher McQuarrie for “Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation” (2015) and “Mission: Impossible: Fallout” and, outside of the series, Joseph Kosinski for “Oblivion” (2013) and “Top Gun Maverick,” he began to demonstrate his ability to spot talent and give them a chance to direct. And what’s important here is that he tried to give them control over the entire film by having them not only direct but also write the screenplay. Moreover, these films are also positioned as masterpieces for their respective writers.

McCulley has made almost only films starring Tom Cruise (laughs). It is truly amazing that the quality of the “Mission: Impossible” franchise, now in its sixth film, has not only not declined but has only gone up.

From the “muscle era” to the “wisdom and skill era.” Tom Cruise in action movie history

In your book, you advocated the “Two Toms” theory (Tom Hanks and Tom Cruise), where you pointed out Tom Cruise as a “man on the run” in Spielberg’s films compared to comedy actor Buster Keaton. Is it the only feature in Spielberg’s films or Tom Cruise’s overall potential as an actor?

Namba: Tom Cruise used to run a lot before the “Mission: Impossible” frahchise, so I have a feeling that he was originally aiming for action. The last scene in “The Firm” (1993, Sydney Pollack) is particularly impressive.

Even before that, I wondered if there had ever been an actor in the past who could do acrobatic tricks so brilliantly in films such as “Cocktail” that no one else could do. Like Billiards in “The Color of Money,” I think from the beginning he was aiming to do the action himself, Buster Keaton style, without using dubbing or stunts. I don’t think that has changed since he actually tried to pilot a fighter plane in “Top Gun.

Namba: What is also interesting about your career is that you did not make any action films for 10 years between “Top Gun” and “Mission: Impossible”. In between, there was “Days of Thunder” in which he played a car racer, but he did not do any real action films.

In my opinion, the late 1980s was the height of the so-called “muscle action boom,” when Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger were tied at the top of the action star heap. They were followed by Steven Seagal and Jean-Claude Van Damme, and it was the “muscle star era. In other words, it was not an era of brilliant action, but an era of action with huge muscles, such as in “Rambo: First Blood Part II” (George P. Cosmatos, 1985) and “Commando” (Mark L. Lester, 1985), in which huge weapons such as machine guns were handled half-naked.

Namba: Tom Cruise has a bad advantage in this respect. He has a good body, but it is not a body built by bodybuilding and he is not tall. Tom Cruise probably recognized this accurately at the time. That is why, until the early 1990s, he focused on learning filmmaking by working with master directors. I think this is probably the most amazing part of his career-making.

When the time was ripe enough, he created his own production company, the first of which was “Mission: Impossible” in 1996. By 1996, Stallone and Schwarzenegger had completely retired from the forefront, and I think they saw the coming of the “age of action with wisdom and skill” like the “Mission: Impossible” series.

Why does authenticity play such an important role in Tom Cruise’s film? 

Namba: The impression would be completely different if you think, “This is really done,” or “This must be CGI.” It is true that Tom Cruise sometimes lies (laugh), but as long as the audience does not think it is a lie, they may feel differently.

Namba: For example, at the beginning of “Top Gun Maverick,” he broke Mach 10, the maximum speed, but if it was an actual event, that must have been a lie because it was a big gold star for the US Air Force. But since the image of Tom Cruise, who can do anything by himself, is completely input into our minds, it seems as if he is really doing it.

In other words, if you make the audience think that Tom is doing everything, you can make them think that he is doing it even if he is not really doing it. In a sense, this is Tom Cruise’s skill. I feel that Tom Cruise is able to create an ideal relationship and bond between the audience and the actor in this way.

Tom Cruise’s stunt action exceeds fiction. Like the beginning of “Top Gun: Maverick,” felt like “You can do it, Tom!” 

Namba: That’s right! I think, “Tom, you could do it. We expect that kind of fantasy, and Tom Cruise is the one who actually responds to it on screen.