Tom Cruise has always been an excellent asset to the film industry. With his multiplicity of range as an actor, the Mission: Impossible star has landed numerous award-winning roles in blockbuster movies and has won the hearts of people from all around the globe. A charmer with the best of skills, Cruise has saved the cinema and its inhabitants in ways more than one.
This includes the time when he helped make Jason Statham’s career and then further on went to save Todd Field’s movie In the Bedroom (2001) as it dangerously lay in the hands of the infamous producer Harvey Weinstein by beating him at his own game.
The Time When Tom Cruise Helped Make Jason Statham’s Career
Tom Cruise has proved his worth time and time again with his exceptionally incredible personality on-screen as well as off-screen. Besides his remarkable contribution to the film industry directly, the Mission: Impossible star has saved the cinema in other ways too. This includes the time he helped the renowned Jason Statham build his career in the industry back in 1998.
At the time, Statham was cast in the crime/comedy Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, which helped him get his big break in Hollywood. However, the movie struggled to find a distributor until producer Matthew Vaughn somehow got in touch with Cruise and asked him to attend the American buyers’ screening of the movie. Recalling the entire incident, Vaughn said,
“It was hysterical. You had all these mid-level executives sitting there, and Cruise walked in. He saw them all sit up and pay attention, all getting on their phones, and suddenly all these senior executives joined the screening. At the end, Tom got up in front of everyone and said ‘this is the best movie I’ve seen in years, you guys would be fools not to buy it.’”
While this was not a star behavior in the least, Tom Cruise still did it and ended up helping build both Vaughn’s and Statham’s careers in the entertainment industry as his intervention ensued a bidding war for the movie and also led it to become an international hit.
Tom Cruise Helped Todd Field By Beating Harvey Weinstein At His Own Game
Although six times Oscar nominee for his unique storylines and outstanding portrayal of his characters, Todd Field was good at everything except winning against Harvey Weinstein. So when his 2001 movie In the Bedroom was handed over to the disgraced producer as it got acquired by Miramax, the Academy Award nominee couldn’t stand seeing it called up Tom Cruise for help.
“I was weeping in the bathroom. I called up Tom Cruise and said, ‘Something terrible has happened.’ He basically said, ‘This is how you’re going to play it. It’s going to take you six months, and you’ll beat him, but you have to do exactly what I’m going to tell you to do, step by step.’”
The only thing the Mission: Impossible star recommended to him was to give Weinstein complete freedom to edit the movie as per his choice, and then when it screens for test audiences and scores poor remarks, he could then simply recommend to the producer to play the film in its original form.
What’s surprising is that his recommendation actually helped, and Todd Field found his film hitting the screens in its original form, moving on to even score five Oscar nominations for its outstanding perfection. Just like that, Tom Cruise beat Weinstein at his own game and saved the director’s masterpiece from ending up in ruins.
Source: Far Out Magazine
