Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography pdfdrive com

Impossible at Pinewood Studios but finding time to read Isabella a bedtime story
as well as indulge his hobby of flying. He even had the opportunity to flirt a little
with Diana, Princess of Wales, when she brought her elder son, Prince William,
to the studios. While she was dazzled by his smile and charm during the two-

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hour visit, he was not her type, the princess preferring tall men.
In the midst of this hectic schedule, Tom found time to read a script by the
journalist-turned-director Cameron Crowe, whom he had first met more than a
decade earlier through Sean Penn, who worked with him on Fast Times at
Ridgemont High. Crowe’s latest project, Jerry Maguire, was about a cynical,
world-weary sports agent who quits his high-powered job in a ruthless company,
taking on just one client, football player Rod Tidwell, and his secretary with
him. The clever script had Tom from the get-go, the actor gripped by the story of
Maguire’s journey from selfishness to self-knowledge. He was so intrigued that
he flew to Los Angeles to see Crowe and his producer, reading the part aloud for
the assembled throng before even asking them to show him the money.
Crowe explained that, as Cruise’s name was synonymous with success, it
would be interesting to explore a character who fails on-screen. The film
eventually earned Tom an Oscar nomination, an Oscar for Cuba Gooding Jr.,
who played Rod Tidwell, and introduced Renée Zellweger to a wider audience.
As Tom’s screen love interest, she noticed a quality in the performer that made
him a truly effective actor but difficult to read as a human being—the ability to
switch off his emotions in a heartbeat.
“His acting was so good it was almost bizarre. You’d look into his eyes and
he’d really be there, he’d really be in love with you. You could see his heart and
soul. And then the director would shout ‘Cut,’ Tom would leave the set, and
you’d have to go into therapy for six months.” It is a not uncommon observation.
Those who have interviewed and even audited him have come away from an
encounter feeling that they have been subjected to a performance rather than a
personality.
Tom’s on-screen persona intrigued and attracted the public as well as his
peers. Not only did he go on to win a Golden Globe for Jerry Maguire, but by
1996 he was the first actor ever to star in five consecutive films, including Jerry
Maguire and Mission: Impossible, to gross over $100 million each at the
American box office. Moreover, in his first outing as a producer in his own right,
he had seen Mission: Impossible earn more than $450 million in box-office
sales. He was Hollywood’s undisputed Top Gun, a man who was able to make
every artistic mission commercially possible.
Yet taking pride of place on the wall of his office in Hollywood were not
posters from his latest blockbuster, but a framed, if rather faded, fax message. It
was sent by the legendary but reclusive director Stanley Kubrick, the genius
behind 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, and Dr.
Strangelove. The note simply said that he would like to work with Tom and

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Nicole on a future project and that a script would be sent to them in the next few
months. That Tom chose to display the letter showed that even he was not
immune to high-caliber flattery. The framed fax was a daily reminder that the
breadth and drawing power of his talent went beyond his popularity with the
public.
“It was just a damn miracle that he wanted me and Nic to do this,” he later
recalled. When the script by Oscar-winning screenwriter and author Frederic
Raphael eventually arrived, “it took us about two seconds to say yes,” recalled
Nicole. “And that was it.” Even though their previous screen collaborations had
not been especially successful, the chance to work with a film legend
outweighed all other considerations. “They thought they were working on a
masterpiece, a career-defining movie,” an associate later recalled.
It was the beginning of a bizarre collaboration that would test the limits of
their acting, their health, their patience, and their marriage. Their first encounter
with Kubrick, in the winter of 1995, set the tone for the strange, surreal life they
were to inhabit for the next few years. As Nicole was still busy filming Portrait