As one of the world’s biggest movie stars, there are plenty of rumors floating around about Tom Cruise ― but he apparently found one story about himself particularly strange.
Chris McQuarrie, a longtime colleague of Cruise who directed the past three “Mission: Impossible” movies, recalled his first meeting with the actor during a recent interview with The Sunday Times newspaper.
McQuarrie said he asked Cruise in 2006 to share the “weirdest story you’ve heard about yourself.”
He said Cruise laughed and replied that the greatest myth about him was that people on set “were not allowed to look me in the eye.”
British actor Simon Pegg, Cruise’s friend and frequent co-star, told The Times that beneath “all the bizarre mythology” that surrounds Cruise, “he’s just a guy.”
“I like being normal with him,” Pegg said.
In 2020, a video of Cruise blowing up on the set of the seventh “Mission: Impossible” movie went viral around the world. In an expletive-filled tirade, the actor threatened to fire crew members who failed to follow pandemic restrictions, shouting: “If I see you do it again, you’re fucking gone!”
“Everything that Tom cares about, in terms of his job, was at stake due to the pandemic,” Pegg explained to The Times. “For him there was a danger this virus could wipe cinema off the face of this earth.”
Cruise, who is notoriously private about his personal life, has been the subject of speculation and conspiracy theories over the years, in part due to his controversial membership in the Church of Scientology. The organization has been accused by former members of being a cult that subjects its members to a culture of abuse, manipulation and fear. Its leader, David Miscavige, has faced multiple human trafficking lawsuits.
The seventh installation of Cruise’s blockbuster franchise, “Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One,” is set for release in the U.S. on July 12. The film, with its whopping run time of two hours and 43 minutes, was originally scheduled for release in 2021 but faced delays due to COVID-19.
CORRECTION: This article incorrectly stated Chris McQuarrie directed “Top Gun: Maverick”; he was one of its writers.