This affair did not surprise Regis Rochia, who recently directed the documentary “Tom Cruise, Forever Young” which will air this coming Monday on HOT8 and HOTVOD. “This outburst is very Tom Cruise,” Rochier says in a zoom interview with the French director. “In recent years he has become a control patient. Since Cruz is the producer of ‘Mission Impossible 7’ it is natural that he is anxious about the fate of the production.”
Anxious about the fate of the production. Tom Cruise
(Photo: EPA)
Rochia believes Cruz sees himself as the one who revives Hollywood despite the corona. “He’s one of the few who said, ‘I want to keep filming – no matter what it takes.’ So I understand his pressure and why he was furious. 50 percent of people said, ‘He’s right! Herself to plague, and that’s commendable. “If he succeeds it means Hollywood can make movies again. Everyone is waiting to see if it succeeds, and if there is no case of infection – his method will become a model. But the other 50% said: ‘Who does he think he is? “He’s an ego maniac and needs to be stopped.” But Cruz is right, he provides jobs. For him it’s easier not to shoot at this time – he’s a multi-millionaire, he can afford it. And yet, he decided to go for the filming. “Surface: I think he feels he has to do ‘Impossible 7 and 8’ now because in another year he might be too old to do the crazy stunts himself. Will he be able to do it all at 65? I’m not sure.”
Tom Cruise performs a stunt and is injured
The issue of age is at the center of the film with the help of excerpts from his great hits and interviews that Cruz has given in the past. Rochia tries to crack the Cruz riddle and he uses an image of Dorian Gray to diagnose the star, who will celebrate his 60th birthday next year. And an attractive one who sells his soul in exchange for eternal beauty and youthful witness. “Already more than 20 years ago he consciously chose to play ageless characters. He also looks very young and does not mature at the same rate as the average Hollywood actor. When you compare it today to the cast of ‘Love in the Sky’, a film he made in 1986, you realize how much they have matured and it still looks great. I chose the analogy between Tom Cruise and Dorian Gray, because it’s a good metaphor for the actor’s place in society and the meaning of age 60 in today’s Hollywood. It’s a conscious choice that Tom Cruise made – he decided to play ageless characters over 20 years ago. ”
Tom Cruise
(Photo: AP)
Dorian Gray sold his soul to the devil. Do you think Cruz did the same?
“His persona matches Dorian Gray’s. Cruz also made an agreement, and in his case it’s an agreement between him, the directors, the audience, the producers and the film world. The paradox is that Cruz is a public figure on the one hand and a very private person on the other. Cruz makes films that millions of people watch, and still we “You only get clues to his dark side – no one really knows what’s going on there. Except for him and maybe even those close to him. One of the reasons the analogy for Dorian Gray works: he publicly presents a youthful and compatible personality and insists on performing the dangerous stunts himself.”
I really wondered why he always risks with all the jumps and climbs. Is it a death wish?
“It’s a complex subject. I think risk has become part of his persona. He’s a megastar who does what actors younger than him can not and do not want to do. I see this choice of Cruz as a love letter to old-fashioned cinema. An antithesis to superhero films using special effects and screens “When you go to watch his movies, you see things that only he can do, and you know he really did them. That’s his way of surviving in Hollywood – because when he’s already doing something else, his movies are less successful.”
Tom Cruise in the stunt, just before he broke his ankle
(Screenshot)
Rushia believes that in order to decipher Cruz one needs to go back to his childhood. “He had a complex childhood. His father was violent and abusive and he abandoned the family when Tom was 12. The family then lived in Kentucky and the mother worked hard to support Cruz and his sisters. The father did not contact him for years and showed no interest in his success. Only when the father was on He made contact with him. One of the most prominent themes in his films – from ‘Love in the Sky’ and ‘The Color of Silver’ – is that Cruz always plays a character who is in the shadow of her father or a character whose father is absent. He never plays a character she has A good and normative father. “
So you think the absence of the father figure in his life is actually the secret?
“It’s a set of things. Even before the father left, the family moved apartment dozens of times in the US and Canada and Cruz was always the new kid in the class. He is dyslexic and maybe when you change schools once or twice a year, when you are not good at school and not very high and every time you have to find new friends and try to become acceptable – it makes you complex, but also survivable and ambitious. “Maybe it’s also related to religion because in his youth he was a devout Catholic and even aspired to be a priest.”
Rochia attributes the breakthrough of the shy Cruz in the early ’80s with“ Turn Off Lights ”and“ Volume Boys ”to the changing social reality of those years. “He embodied the perfect American vision and youth – he erupted when Ronald Reagan won the presidential election, a time when the public wanted to forget Vietnam. The youth in the early eighties wanted to see themselves on screen and the American nation was captivated by Cruz’s charm, thanks to the ‘Dangerous Amusement’ dance scene. “.
In conversation with you you often use the phrase “dark side”. So what’s the dark side of Tom Cruise?
“Cruz is a man like the rest of us. He was very young when he started his career in acting and in fact spent most of his life in the spotlight. He’s the kind of actor who always smiled in the media and showed their best side and on sets he was the good guy, but that show didn’t always Reality. And it’s something that’s even harder to preserve when you’re a big star in Hollywood and exposed to alcohol and drugs. Every big star has a dark side, but Cruz hid that side and did not reveal it. Maybe that’s why he turned to Scientology, whose roots are designed to help celebs live with class. “Before the big manipulations are done on them. Scientology allows him to live in peace with publicity and with Hollywood.”
Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes
(Photo: Getty Images)
In “Tom Cruise, Forever Young,” Rochia dares to gently touch on rumors surrounding Cruz’s sexual orientation. As I recall, it has often been argued that Cruz is a man-lover, and his marriage to Mimi Rogers, Nicole Kidman and Katie Holmes, and the affair with Penelope Cruz, were in fact cover-comfort stories. Rochia treats this bomb with silk gloves and illustrates the subject with the help of two scenes, one gay-erotic with Brad Pitt from “The Vampire Diary” and the other taken from “Eyes Wide Shut” – in which Cruz is attacked in the street by homophobic thugs who think he is gay.
Cruz really gay in the closet?
Rochia bursts out laughing. “Personally I do not think he is gay because there were no clues to it and he was married and has children.”
come on. It means nothing. And maybe marriage and romances are a cover story at all.
“Maybe. The issue of sexual identity is terribly ambivalent and I did not want to say in the film unequivocally that he is gay, because there is no proof of that.”
Do you have any idea if he’s in a relationship right now?
“Apparently Cruz is in a fresh relationship with Haley Atville, who plays alongside him in ‘Mission Impossible 7.’ This is news that came out right after the story of his outburst, so maybe it’s for public relations to calm the spirits.”
In recent years, he has been having ridiculous affair with the actresses who play alongside him.
“Dating stories are always very vague. When you see Tom Cruise with Katie Holmes it’s hard to believe he’s really in love – so the audience walked away from him too. He then jumped on Oprah Winfrey’s couch and proudly declared he was in love, but it would never look like that. But we will never know. “And I think that’s good too. That’s what makes him such an interesting character.”
Tom Cruise
(Photo: AP)
By the way, I suspected that the tape leak was a PR gimmick.
“My friends think so too. He is such a fascinating character that you never know if something is calculated in advance with him or not. Maybe through the story of the shouts and the mask he tried to put the minds of investors.”
After watching all of Cruz’s films, Rochia came to the conclusion that Cruz, who has never won an Oscar (even though he was nominated 3 times), is a quality actor and not just an action movie hero. “In recent years – his personal life, the issue of Scientology, his action movies – have overshadowed his talent. But when I watched all of his movies I came to know how talented he really is. When I watched ‘Turn Off Lights’ from 1981, I was amazed at his strengths – it’s particularly impressive given the fact “He did not attend acting school. In my opinion, he has an innate talent.”
During his career Cruz worked with senior directors – Francis Ford Coppola (“Volume Boys”), Martin Scorsese (“The Color of Silver”), Oliver Stone (“Born on July 4th”), Paul Thomas Anderson (“Magnolia”), Stanley Kubrick (” Eyes wide open “) and Steven Spielberg (” War of the Worlds “,” Special Report “). In recent years he has focused on action movies and franchises.” I think Cruz has taken Scientology and its dark side one step too far. Many directors including Spielberg do not want to work with him anymore, because of his commitment to Scientology and perhaps also because of his dominance. The franchise movies were what saved him. Even today he is one of the few actors who can be said about him: “Let’s go see a Tom Cruise movie.”
From “Magnolia”
“When I heard the news I told myself there was no situation. But he really meant it Take pictures in space And this is something that has never been done before. Something no one else can do. In a sense the idea of photographing in space is paradoxical – we know how to ‘fake’ the space, so there is no need to fly there to photograph a masterpiece. There is no doubt that this is a new boundary that will be broken. Funny to think that one day we will look at the sky and Cruz will indeed be among the stars. It’s delusional, fascinating and insane. “
Were you able to solve Tom Cruise’s puzzle or is it an impossible task?
“It’s an impossible task, and that was not my goal either. I’m not that arrogant.”
So what was your goal?
“My goal was just to say that here, this is who I think he is based on what he has said over the years and the movies he has made. He has been acting for 40 years and his life and career can teach us something about cinema, about America and maybe even about ourselves. We will never know for sure “Only he and his associates – from the circle of Scientology, perhaps Nicole Kidman – know.”
Did you try to get an interview with him?
“No. I learned more from digging in the archives than I would have learned from interviewing him. I do not think I would have been able to get such an interview – I had to go through a battery of lawyers and media consultants, who would check my questions. Since I did not interview, I was free to express my point “In any case, Cruz is controversial and most people enjoy hating him.”
But he also has a lot of fans.
“True. Either you love him or you hate. A good portion of his fans said I presented him properly. Although I mentioned things at times about him, but for them my film still restored his image. Many fans said: ‘True, Tom is a mysterious and ambivalent person, but “The film shows that he is an excellent actor – which is why we are satisfied.” It’s just a pity that this fact has been erased from public memory in the last 10 years. ”