Given Tom Cruise’s status as a Hollywood megastar, it appears as though people are already familiar with every aspect of his life story. But they are wrong! Turns out, the star’s career bears a striking resemblance with his pal, Dwayne Johnson. Before landing a role in his high-school musical, that would prompt him to make a life-changing decision, the Mission Impossible star was a bonafide wrestler.
It was injuries in both of their cases, that nudged them both into the acting sphere, which led them to ultimately dominate the industry. Thus upon reflection, the shocking revelations have prompted people to recognize the astonishing similarities between the lives of these two well-established rival actors.
Tom Cruise Wanted to Become a Wrestler
Drawing parallels to Dwayne Johnson‘s journey from a struggling football player to a WWE superstar and, eventually, a Hollywood icon, Tom Cruise’s trajectory has also mirrored The Rock’s path if one takes a closer look. Both actors traversed a similar path of transformation and transitioned from very different career pursuits to achieving remarkable success in the industry. According to reports, the now megastar Tom Cruise, once wanted to become a wrestler, and his former wrestling captain also came out to verify the fact. He said,
“He had times when he was struggling to be accepted. With wrestling, you made your own mark. He deserves all his success. He was always a real go-getter, but a good guy. I’ve not got a bad word to say about Tom.”
Cruise had a hard time fitting in with fellow kids wherever he went, and was in turn bullied a lot, thus, he tried out many different ways to blend with the crowd. When dressing like a ‘bad boy’ did not help, he turned to wrestling to channel his aggression. And turns out he was pretty good at it, but faced an injury that forced him to take a breather.
But as people are aware, Cruise is a true go-getter and refused to sit idle, therefore decided to try his hands at acting in his high school musical, Guys and Dolls. Upon witnessing the glitz and glamour of the theatre world, and how the power of inspiring and moving people through his performance was in his palms, he decided to move to New York to give acting a decent shot, and the rest is history.
Tom Cruise Stole Dwayne Johnson’s Dream Role
Once in an Instagram ‘AMA’ session, the WWE star-turned-actor, Dwayne Johnson revealed how he lost a role he really wanted to Tom Cruise at the start of his career. It is no secret that, Johnson has been a household name way before he started his career in Hollywood. Thus, he entered into Hollywood life prepared, and unfortunately surrounded by a bunch of ‘yes-men’, who led him to think he was capable of getting any role, which was a bit out of his reach then. He explained,
“In Hollywood, actors are kind of like in-a-box. There are actors that can vie for a particular role because it allows for them to have a certain look, skin color, size, etc. Fortunately, for me, there aren’t a lot of guys at all who look like me. So, all of my roles, from the beginning of my career, I’ve been a lucky son of a bitch that they’ve been created and designed for me — except Jack Reacher.”
Jack Reacher was the role that the actor initially regretted losing to Tom Cruise. He further explained,
“Now, this was ten years ago, and I was in a much different place, I recognize that. Tom was the biggest movie star in the world, and I was not. I got the call saying ‘Hey, you didn’t get the role’ Look, I didn’t even know if I had a shot for it, but the people around me at that time made me think that I did. I felt like I did, I felt like ‘Why not me?'”
Looking back, he is pretty grateful he did not end up getting the role he so desperately wanted. He said,
“I’m positive that the role of Jack Reacher, because it was an established character, an IP that was well known and beloved around the world, that I wouldn’t have had the creative space to do what I wanted with the character. I look back in gratitude that I didn’t get Jack Reacher.”
People now cannot even imagine how The Rock would look portraying the beloved role. Thus, despite Tom Cruise’s considerably longer tenure in the entertainment business compared to Dwayne Johnson, the life-changing career moves, and work ethics bind them together.
Source: Daily Mail
