Tom Cruise is one of the biggest movie stars in the world today. He is also one of the few actors who started with nothing and have achieved global stardom and popularity like no other. At 61, he is still pushing the limits of filmmaking and risking his life to entertain audiences and give them a pulse-pounding experience whenever they watch his films. He has shown his versatility in a diverse range of projects including the Mission Impossible franchise, the two Top Gun films, Jerry Maguire, Magnolia, Born on the Fourth of July, A Few Good Men, and Tropic Thunder to name a few.
He is also known for being a control freak on set and has a strict emphasis on cleanliness and hygiene. Doug Liman, who is one of his close friends and a director of two of his films talked about this OCD condition in an interview.
Doug Liman Calls Tom Cruise a Neat Freak
In an interview with Vulture, director Doug Liman talked about shooting his film American Made starring Tom Cruise in the lead. The film is inspired by the life of an American airline pilot Barry Seal who smuggled drugs for the Colombian drug cartel and later became an informant for the DEA. Liman talked about how he, Cruise, and the writer of the film shared a house while shooting the film. When asked about the cleanliness level of Cruise while staying at the house, Liman answered
“Well, my answer’s a little biased, because I’m messy, but I think he’s a little OCD”
Liman further talked about Cruise’s OCD in an interview with Seth Meyers on his show (via Entertainment Tonight) saying,
“We were roommates from hell. To be honest, I’m a little messy. Tom Cruise is kind of a neat freak, some might say OCD when it comes to the dishes, and believes they should be scrubbed before they go in the dishwasher, which I don’t. We had trouble hiring a maid so we actually had a chore chart in the house. When it was my turn to do the dishes, I would hide them in the pantry bar sink — but Tom doesn’t miss a thing.”
It seems Cruise was quite the cleanliness freak and this created a bit of a problem for the director who was sharing the house with him. Even though Liman finds Cruise to be a director’s dream to work with on set, it seems he was a ‘roommate from hell’ when it comes to cleanliness and hygiene around the house.
Doug Liman Made Up for it by Making an Anti-Tom Cruise Film
Tom Cruise is mostly portrayed in films as a heroic figure and an individual who is willing to do anything to save the day. But in Doug Liman’s films Edge of Tomorrow and American Made, his characters are individuals who are, as Liman puts it, ‘cowards’, who struggle and fail constantly throughout the film. He extracts that vulnerability and acting from Cruise which is against type from what he is mostly known for. In that same interview with Variety, he says this about working with Cruise,
“You know, Tom is somebody who is known for being fearless, for hanging off the sides of airplanes and stuff like that. But he’s truly fearless when it comes to trying roles like Barry Seal, or Cage in Edge of Tomorrow. He’s willing to play these kinds of roles. He loves playing them, but I think the only trick was asking him to do it. I’ve made a career of being a contrarian. If I’m going to work with Tom Cruise, it’s my instinct to be like, “Well, I’m going to do the anti-Tom Cruise movie.””
When it comes to acting, Cruise is always ready to do something that he has never done before. He is a film lover himself and is fascinated by the range of what an actor can do. He has frequently gone against type in films such as Collateral (2004) Tropic Thunder (2008), Rock of Ages (2012), and the two films by Liman.
What is Tom Cruise Working on Now?
Tom Cruise’s current work on his upcoming Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two has been put on halt due to the ongoing strikes in Hollywood. The film is scheduled to release on June 28, 2024. The first part, although a hit with audiences and critics, underperformed at the box office.
He is set to reunite with Doug Liman for an untitled space film which will be the first Hollywood film to be shot in outer space.
Source: Vulture
