Tom Cruise Brought Up A Hollywood Legend When Asked Why He Still Does His Own Stunts

Tom Cruise is, as you might have heard, an intense guy. He doesn’t celebrate his birthday like a normal person, he makes his co-stars go through “boot camp,” and he does his own stunts, including climbing the tallest building in the world and holding his breath underwater for over six minutes. His process is high risk, high reward. But between the increasingly fantastic Mission: Impossible series and Top Gun: Maverick (“one of the best theatrical experiences” ever), the reward has outweighed the risk.

On Tuesday, Cruise appeared at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, where he was questioned by French journalist Didier Allouch on why he, a 59-year-old man, still does his own stunts. “No one asked Gene Kelly, ‘Why do you dance Why do you do your own dancing’” Cruise replied. That’s because they were too busy asking the song-and-dance legend about the Jerry the mouse sequence from Anchors Aweigh.

The release for Top Gun: Maverick was pushed back several times due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Cruise, a longtime proponent of theatrical experience, ensured that the movie made it to the multiplexes while many studio films were jettisoned to streaming over the two years’ worth of theatrical tumult. When asked if he faced any pressure to release the movie onto a streaming service, Cruise laughed, saying, “That was not going to happen ever. That was never going to happen.”

Cruise later said, “I remember everything.” It’s unclear if he meant that he remembers everything he’s done, or everything everyone, including you, has done. I believe it either way, and now I’m picturing Tom Cruise as an all-knowing Santa — if Santa hung onto an airplane while it was taking off. Sounds like a future movie idea.