Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography pdfdrive com

Impossible, which was scheduled to be filmed in Australia, while Nicole tried
her hand at the theater, earning a modest five hundred dollars a week to star in
The Blue Room at the fashionable Donmar Warehouse Theatre. She would play
five characters, ranging from a Cockney harlot and a politician’s mistress to an
unfaithful wife. The role involved simulating sex five times and appearing
naked, albeit briefly, in front of the audience. Nor was Nicole the only one to
take her clothes off; her costar, Iain Glen, had to perform a naked cartwheel
across the stage each night.
In September 1998, just weeks before the court case against Express
Newspapers, The Blue Room opened to rapturous reviews, Nicole’s performance
memorably described as “theatrical Viagra” by theater critic Charles Spencer.
“She’s drop dead gorgeous and bewitchingly adorable. The vision of her wafting
round the stage with a fag in one hand and her knickers in the other as a
delicious French au pair will haunt my fantasies for months.”
Nicole had managed something that had eluded her in the movies: Now she
was not only considered a beauty, but taken seriously as an actress and a sex
symbol. It was intoxicating. Director Sam Mendes, who went on to direct
American Beauty, noted the change in her. “I feel for Nicole it was a very special
time. It was the moment she became a special entity from Tom Cruise. And I’m
sure she was aware that was happening.”
In public, both Nicole and her stage partner Iain Glen were keen to emphasize
that their respective partners—Glen was married at that time to actress Susannah

---

Harker—were “secure” about watching them have sex onstage. Tom was so
“secure,” in fact, that he came to see the play more than twenty times. Perhaps
he was wholly admiring of his wife’s work and absolutely comfortable watching
her act out having sex with Iain Glen over and over again. Certainly Glen, who
first met Tom when he watched them perform the play at a preview, implied that
they were all mates together. “He was such an extraordinary bundle of brilliant,
positive energy. You couldn’t have a more enthusiastic and generous person as a
friend.”
Behind the scenes, it wasn’t quite so convivial. The handsome Scotsman, who
was considered for the role of James Bond, was a talented stage and film veteran
who refused to be impressed by Tom’s achievements. Glen, who was the same
age as the Hollywood star but six inches taller, looked down on Tom, belittling
his ability while flirting with his wife. The general consensus of those in Tom’s
circle was that the Hollywood actor was pleasant to the Scottish thespian—but
only through gritted teeth. “Tom and he did not get on, whereas there was real
chemistry between Iain and Nicole. She always laughed at his jokes.” Those who
watched the trio in action could not help but admire Tom’s sangfroid in the face
of considerable provocation. As one associate said bluntly, “Iain Glen was a dick
who had no respect for Tom and who would openly flirt with Nicole. Tom
refused to show any agitation, as he was a real gentleman.”
For a man used to admiration and easy authority, the incestuous, clubby
landscape of theatrical London left him feeling isolated. This cliquey world, with
its in-jokes, witty banter, and storytelling, was alien to the film actor who was no
longer the instant center of attention. Even his famous smile failed to impress.
More than that, he was used to the rhythm of the film set, where early mornings
rather than late nights were the norm. This lifestyle, however, was meat and
drink to Nicole, who reveled in the adrenaline-fueled rush after nightly
performances, hanging out until the early hours at the members-only Soho Club,
chatting, laughing, and carousing.
For the first time in their marriage, rumors and whispers raced around London
about Nicole, claiming that she and Iain were involved in a passionate offstage
romance. The gossip was hardly helped by Glen’s breezy attitude in interviews.
“We had to get very intimate with each other very quickly as actors,” he told In
Theater magazine. “It’s easy to kid yourself that you’re getting on really well,
but with Nicole—through Sam’s help—we immediately established a very easy
relationship. I think that was very important. People who come to the play see us
do five different characters each; in a way, it’s curiously about the relationship
between Nic and I as much as anything.”
Once the play finished its London run at the end of October, Nicole and Iain

---

flew to New York, where the show was scheduled to open on Broadway in mid-
December. In order to give extra zest to her role as a prostitute, Nicole hired her
acting coach, Susan Batson, to help her explore the part further. Batson took her
to a seedy part of downtown Manhattan where Nicole spent time talking to real
streetwalkers. The problem was that the sight of Nicole mingling with hookers
began to draw attention—and customers. “Here was a hot white woman on the
street,” Batson remembers. “Cars were coming left and right. We finally had to
really get out of there because it got a little dangerous.”
While the extra homework may have helped her performance, the play was
not quite as well received as in London. Even so, Nicole and Iain were the talk
of Broadway, invited to the famed annual ball at the Metropolitan Museum of
Art. Unlike his counterpart, Iain Glen was not used to walking the red carpet or,
for that matter, wearing a suit. So Nicole arranged for the fashion house Prada to
lend him a suit and pair of shoes for the big occasion. When he demurred about
sending them back, Nicole generously bought them for him. Her largesse
extended to inviting Iain, his wife, Susannah Harker, and their child to Telluride
for Thanksgiving, as well as flying them to Sydney to join her family for the
millennium celebrations. Although Tom played the gracious host, Glen’s
constant put-downs and disrespect infuriated him. If it had been his choice, they
would never have been invited in the first place.
As with Kubrick, Tom was all about putting on a show. Tom would regularly
visit Nicole backstage, though it was noted that there was little conversation or
other interaction between them when they were alone. As soon as photographers
were around, it was camera, lights, action, the couple kissing, canoodling, and
pawing each other to the point where observers were thinking, “Just get a room.”
Once the photographers were gone, the emotional lights went off and the couple
reverted to their normal world of silence and distance.
During the Broadway run of The Blue Room, another man came into her life
who would have a dramatic impact. At the end of one performance, Nicole
walked into her dressing room to find a dozen long-stemmed red roses. At first
she thought Tom had sent them, but when she read the note she realized they
were from Australian director Baz Luhrmann. “She sings, she dances, she dies.
Please meet me,” read the note. Intrigued, Nicole found herself talking to
Luhrmann about the role of Satine, the beautiful and tragic courtesan who would
be the star of his proposed screen musical, Moulin Rouge. The part would be a
stretch for Nicole, who was not a trained singer or dancer. Buoyed by her
success in The Blue Room and lured by the prospect of filming in her hometown
of Sydney, Nicole decided to take on the challenge.
It proved to be contagious. As Tom was preparing to reprise his role as special

---

agent Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible II, he, too, found himself seduced by a
challenging script. This one was by Paul Thomas Anderson, young director of
the cult film Boogie Nights, who had visited Tom during the long hours of
waiting on the set of Eyes Wide Shut to say he had written a role for him in his
upcoming movie, Magnolia. Tom, who devours scripts the way others read
newspapers, was immediately taken with the character of Frank T. J. Mackey, a
macho, misogynist self-help guru who teaches men how to snare women at his
“Seduce and Destroy” seminars. Like the film, his character was over the top,
ripe, and rather gamey. Anderson based Tom’s character on the teachings of
California author Ross Jeffries, whose speed seduction techniques were the basis
for a series of self-help books.
While many were surprised that Tom was prepared to join an ensemble cast,
which included Julianne Moore, Jason Robards, and Philip Seymour Hoffman,
Tom relished the part, inviting his pals to the set to watch when he conducted a
seminar in which his character yelled at his enraptured male audience to “respect
the cock and destroy the cunt.” As he later told director Cameron Crowe: “When
I read the script I thought, ‘When do you get a chance to go to seminars like
that?’ I’m an actor. I’d never played a character like that. I like humor. I thought
it was dark and funny.”
It was believed that Anderson had written a scene in which Mackey visits his
estranged father on his deathbed with Tom in mind. In fact, Anderson didn’t
know that Tom had last seen his father in similar circumstances in real life. The
actor did, though, draw on his own experience, Tom later admitting that he was
“skating on the edge.” He was sensitive enough to ensure that his mother, Mary
Lee, and stepfather, Jack South, saw the film privately before the premiere, lest
it bring back painful memories for her. She loved his performance, as did
audiences and his peers, Tom duly rewarded with a Golden Globe award and an
Oscar nomination.
Shortly after filming ended in early 1999, Tom received an invitation he could
not refuse. It was from Scientology executives, politely requesting that he
undertake the rigors of what is known as the Potential Trouble
Source/Suppressive Person course. The course is designed to anchor an
individual’s faith while pinpointing those in his life who create problems and
difficulties—Suppressive Persons, who stop a Scientologist from achieving
“wins” on his journey up the bridge. The Potential Trouble Source in the sights
of the Scientology hierarchy was Nicole Kidman.
Alarm bells had been ringing ever since they had read a December 1998
interview in Newsweek, where she described her faith: “There’s a little

---

Buddhism, a little Scientology,” she said. “I was raised Catholic and a big part of
me is still a Catholic girl.” That was not good enough. Not only was she married
to one of Scientology’s poster boys, but her father was a psychologist, which
automatically made her a Potential Trouble Source. Even though, as a celebrity,
Nicole was treated with kid gloves by Scientology leaders, the storm clouds
were gathering.
Shortly after Kidman’s Newsweek interview, senior Scientology leaders,
including David Miscavige, Ray Mithoff, and others, discussed their strategy to
keep Tom firmly in the fold. The fear was that a lukewarm Nicole could fatally
compromise Tom’s commitment to his faith. Somehow Tom had to be
inoculated against the virus of doubt. The surefire cure for skepticism was the
Potential Trouble Source/Suppressive Person course, which reinforced wavering
Scientologists’ loyalty while making them more suspicious of those around them
who were not members of the faith.
Often, on completion of the course, Scientologists would of their own free
will write letters “disconnecting” from loved ones who were not members of
Scientology. For example, after he completed the rigors of the PTS/SP course,
Peter Alexander’s seventeen-year-old son calmly sat down and wrote him a
letter saying that he never wanted to see him again. The fact that such letters
were voluntary meant that when questioned, Scientology officials could argue
that these individuals were acting in their own best interests and without any
coercion.
When she read the Newsweek article, Karen Pressley, who had watched
Nicole’s waning enthusiasm for Scientology, realized that it was the beginning
of the end for her marriage. “By the late 1990s, Nicole was dragging her feet.
Tom was much more involved and advancing much faster than she was. I
realized that she wasn’t going to make it and it really upset me.” At the time
Karen wanted to leave Scientology. She knew that if she left and her husband,
Peter, wanted to stay inside the organization, he would have no choice but to
divorce her, which is what happened. Karen now feared that Nicole would go
down the same path and lose her children into the bargain.
In early 1999, Tom dutifully attended rigorous auditing sessions with Marty
Rathbun, Scientology’s inspector general. On one occasion, as part of a drill, he
had to ask strangers this question: “What is the most obvious thing about me?”
He carried out the drill so enthusiastically that, rather than confine his
questioning to fellow Scientologists, he went out onto the street and collared
complete strangers. One startled passerby told him: “Well, you look like Tom
Cruise—but only at a stretch.”
His decision to embark on such a tough course coincided with a period of

---

“real loss and pain” in his life. On March 2, 1999, a few days after The Blue