My guess is none of the ex’s talk about him because Scientology lawyers and henchmen would come after them. Signed an iron clad NDA. As a former (brief) Scientologist and friends of the same I experienced the brainwashing cult up close. Very scary time in my young life. Thank goodness people who loved me got me out quickly. I still love his movies tho. Makes you have to think about the whole separating the art from artist philosophical question.
Please know that Tom Cruise is one of the leaders of Scientology which is known to hide sexual assault as proven in the Danny Masterson trial. And thats just one of the ongoing crimes committed systemically by that particular cult. And he is well aware of everything that goes on within Scientology.
The fact that Tom Cruise is so involved in Scientology is a real turn off. The famous quote by Scientology founder, L Ron Hubbard, “ If you want to be rich, start a religion “ sounds a little Trumpy to me. Tom Cruise made some great movies in his younger years, but the fact that he is so dedicated to this made up religion is a real turn-off. I just wonder if he and John Travolta aren’t making money off this cult
Back in the 1990s, I was walking into a theater to watch some movie I've long forgotten, and saw a poster. It was just a silhouette of Tom Cruise and the date the movie was coming out. That's all. My sister and I were immediately like, "We're seeing that". To me, that is a movie star. He has/had the ability to pull people into the theaters just because he was in the movie. I didn't care what it was going to be about and I knew he would good in it. That's all I needed to know.
Back in my late teens, I had a huge crush on him, as did many others, I suspect. Days of Thunder and Far and Away were movies I watched over and over just so I could stare at him, lol. I adored him in Rain Man and Jerry Maguire. And though I cannot ever understand all the things that are going on in the Mission Impossible movies, I love watching them.
I'm not sure I would like him as a person, and that's judgmental of me since we've never met. I had a co-worker who got a picture with him, and she said he was super friendly and acted excited to be taking the picture, which was nice. I do not care for his negative take on psychiatry and his dismissal of the existence of neuro-transmitters, as I think he is an influential person and people that need psychiatric help might be dissuaded by him. He is certainly free to be a Scientologist, but I do believe that is a dangerous cult. Is he a villain, or a victim? I don't know.
It is kind of rare these days to have a celebrity that you cannot interact with online. There are some, of course, but to me it seems like the majority will at least have a Twitter account or an Insta they update from time to time. As far as I know, he doesn't do that. He's kind of the old school Hollywood that way. Distant and mysterious.
He's had a series of wives, raised two children, and is permanently estranged from his only biological child. Holmes chose to protect herself and her daughter from Scientology, with a carefully executed plan she fled the marriage.
Suri seems to be a well grounded and happy, privileged, young woman.
We all know who Cruise is, hard not to, given his level of fame. He's not the epitomy of evil that you want him to be, there are far worse people than this emotionally controlled and controlling man. He moves on, so have all of his ex wives.
I can’t believe no one has mentioned “Born on the 4th of July!” He so deserved an Oscar for that performance. I don’t watch Tom Cruise movies anymore, it’s just not my bag. Glad the rest of you are enjoying him.
One unsung thing about Tom Cruise: He is absolutely brilliant at playing bad guys and doesn't do it nearly enough. Watch Collateral. It'll make you wish he and Michael Mann did a whole series of movies together. He's riveting and terrifying and just about steals the movie, which is damn hard to do if Jamie Foxx is the lead. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend you do. (Bonus: Mark Ruffalo is almost unrecognizable in his role as a detective.)
I am against Scientology because they take the scam to cruel extremes. But I love movies and love that Cruise clearly loves them. His only activism that I recall is telling people to turn off digital enhancers on TV’s. It’s clear that he will do anything to make his movies better, and that passion shows.
This is just me creating a conspiracy theory, and I have nothing to back it up, but my theory is he went from actor/artist to actor/moneymaker about twenty years ago in order to drive money and attention to his cult, which he controls every bit as much as that TV-evangelist-looking leader of Scientology.
Art house fare no longer helped him achieve those goals.
American Made - another great Cruise movie! Hard to beat Maverick though - that one rules
They Came Together was a great movie. I think about it every time I see someone in a Ben Franklin costume
My guess is none of the ex’s talk about him because Scientology lawyers and henchmen would come after them. Signed an iron clad NDA. As a former (brief) Scientologist and friends of the same I experienced the brainwashing cult up close. Very scary time in my young life. Thank goodness people who loved me got me out quickly. I still love his movies tho. Makes you have to think about the whole separating the art from artist philosophical question.
Recommend all readers check out the great song Tom Cruise Crazy by Jonathan Coulon. Very catch, too. Here’s a chorus: “Tom Cruise is Tom Cruise crazy
Just be glad it's him, not you
If you had Tom Cruise's troubles
You might be Tom Cruise crazy too
You'd flash your big white shiny smile
You'd buy expensive shoes
But you'd be the only man on Earth who couldn't enjoy Tom Cruise, oh no
You couldn't enjoy Tom Cruise”
he DOES seem to be enjoying the FUCK out of his impossible ride.
Please know that Tom Cruise is one of the leaders of Scientology which is known to hide sexual assault as proven in the Danny Masterson trial. And thats just one of the ongoing crimes committed systemically by that particular cult. And he is well aware of everything that goes on within Scientology.
The fact that Tom Cruise is so involved in Scientology is a real turn off. The famous quote by Scientology founder, L Ron Hubbard, “ If you want to be rich, start a religion “ sounds a little Trumpy to me. Tom Cruise made some great movies in his younger years, but the fact that he is so dedicated to this made up religion is a real turn-off. I just wonder if he and John Travolta aren’t making money off this cult
Back in the 1990s, I was walking into a theater to watch some movie I've long forgotten, and saw a poster. It was just a silhouette of Tom Cruise and the date the movie was coming out. That's all. My sister and I were immediately like, "We're seeing that". To me, that is a movie star. He has/had the ability to pull people into the theaters just because he was in the movie. I didn't care what it was going to be about and I knew he would good in it. That's all I needed to know.
Back in my late teens, I had a huge crush on him, as did many others, I suspect. Days of Thunder and Far and Away were movies I watched over and over just so I could stare at him, lol. I adored him in Rain Man and Jerry Maguire. And though I cannot ever understand all the things that are going on in the Mission Impossible movies, I love watching them.
I'm not sure I would like him as a person, and that's judgmental of me since we've never met. I had a co-worker who got a picture with him, and she said he was super friendly and acted excited to be taking the picture, which was nice. I do not care for his negative take on psychiatry and his dismissal of the existence of neuro-transmitters, as I think he is an influential person and people that need psychiatric help might be dissuaded by him. He is certainly free to be a Scientologist, but I do believe that is a dangerous cult. Is he a villain, or a victim? I don't know.
It is kind of rare these days to have a celebrity that you cannot interact with online. There are some, of course, but to me it seems like the majority will at least have a Twitter account or an Insta they update from time to time. As far as I know, he doesn't do that. He's kind of the old school Hollywood that way. Distant and mysterious.
I dunno, man. I kinda feel like Tom Cruise has told us who he is on multiple occasions, but we don't really like to hear it. I wrote about the guy earlier this summer... https://medium.com/honestly-yours/why-do-we-love-abusers-48a07da20efb?sk=6bf3ef1b20b467b054a837cac7c1d575
He's had a series of wives, raised two children, and is permanently estranged from his only biological child. Holmes chose to protect herself and her daughter from Scientology, with a carefully executed plan she fled the marriage.
Suri seems to be a well grounded and happy, privileged, young woman.
We all know who Cruise is, hard not to, given his level of fame. He's not the epitomy of evil that you want him to be, there are far worse people than this emotionally controlled and controlling man. He moves on, so have all of his ex wives.
I can’t believe no one has mentioned “Born on the 4th of July!” He so deserved an Oscar for that performance. I don’t watch Tom Cruise movies anymore, it’s just not my bag. Glad the rest of you are enjoying him.
ha. That's it right there. A wizard of Oz. A hollywood humbug.
One unsung thing about Tom Cruise: He is absolutely brilliant at playing bad guys and doesn't do it nearly enough. Watch Collateral. It'll make you wish he and Michael Mann did a whole series of movies together. He's riveting and terrifying and just about steals the movie, which is damn hard to do if Jamie Foxx is the lead. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend you do. (Bonus: Mark Ruffalo is almost unrecognizable in his role as a detective.)
I've lost count of the number of times I've watched Collateral, ditto Magnolia.
Cruise is the lead in Collateral.
I am against Scientology because they take the scam to cruel extremes. But I love movies and love that Cruise clearly loves them. His only activism that I recall is telling people to turn off digital enhancers on TV’s. It’s clear that he will do anything to make his movies better, and that passion shows.
peoply? That's news to me
I just made it up!
I love “peoply”! You are brilliant!
This is just me creating a conspiracy theory, and I have nothing to back it up, but my theory is he went from actor/artist to actor/moneymaker about twenty years ago in order to drive money and attention to his cult, which he controls every bit as much as that TV-evangelist-looking leader of Scientology.
Art house fare no longer helped him achieve those goals.
Excellent piece, Michael.
"we are so familiar with the man, yet we know almost nothing about him."
Well, we do know one thing. We won't find him sitting in a psychiatrist's chair any time soon:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Cruise#Criticism_of_psychiatry
Go back and watch his debut in Taps. That's one movie that sticks with you for a while.
Imagine if there were ever a Tom Cruise roast on Comedy Central?! I imagine he’d be in tears by the 10th joke.