By now, we’ve grown used to watching Tom Cruise excel at everything he does. Risking his life in action scenes so preposterously dangerous that audiences need to have their sphincters manually unclenched with a crowbar? Singlehandedly ensuring that theatrical exhibition didn’t go extinct after Covid?
The man deserves all the praise in the world for that. Live long enough and a few flaws will worm their way to the surface. This is as true for Tom Cruise as it is for anyone else.
And while I realise that this might do me out of a cake this Christmas, the following really needs to be said: Tom Cruise isn’t very good at interviews. As you will be aware, Cruise’s new film Digger comes out soon. It is his first original, non-sequel, non-action film in which he co-stars since 2007’s Lions for Lambs.
It is also, if the trailers are any indication, palpably batshit. This means that Cruise has to reintroduce himself to the world as an actor, rather than the guy who just flings himself off a variety of increasingly berserk surfaces. And this means promotion.
Until this week, that promotion has involved either World Cup-themed promos filmed in character or interviews where the subject matter was almost exclusively limited to lens choice. However, yesterday Cruise subjected himself to a rare longform interview opposite GQ’s Zach Baron. On paper, it couldn’t have been easier.
Baron was a perfectly chosen interviewer for the job, understanding exactly when to flatter and when to needle. However, Tom Cruise’s defences are foot-thick and watertight, and the majority of Baron’s questions simply bounced off him. This resulted in a fairly unsatisfactory 30-minute stalemate in which Tom Cruise talked and talked and said nothing at all.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
