Then I took my hat off and he was like "What you do?"
- And I was like... - "I'm getting into character."
"This is my character." And he panicked.
His latest film 'American Made' is the true story of an airline pilot
entangled by the CIA, drug cartels and, indeed, the White House itself
in South American revolutionary wars of the 70s and 80s.
All this is legal?
If you're doing it for the good guys.
All right. Tom Cruise... Lovely to meet you.
I want to talk about 'American Made' but before we get there
can I ask, of all the different films you've made
what was the one that changed you the most?
What was the one that had a profoundly different Tom
that went into it that came out the other side?
The first film I made 'Taps',
because I'd wanted to make movies my whole life
and to have that opportunity and to start out...
I went to every single department, studied every aspect of film-making.
In honour of this auspicious occasion, Major Moreland,
your presence is requested in the hallway.
It was a very informative and unique experience for me
because, of course, I'd never been on a movie set...
I did one day with 'Endless Love' but...
I was learning all about cameras and lighting and...
And also script and how movies are made.
You had George C Scott, Sean Penn
and you had Harold Becker who directed it.
And we'd spent over a month preparing the film.
They brought us all down as young actors, I was 18.
That's an incredible acceleration in your career
from having a few years in high school to suddenly doing that.
Not a few years, it was months. It was months.
Jeez, I'd give my right nut for those oak leaves.
But I remember there was a day I showed up where
in the morning I thought, my character, I want shaved head
so I went into town and shaved my head
and showed up to Harold, Mr Becker,
and I said "Mr Becker..." and took my hat off
and he was like... "What'd you do?"
- I was like... - Getting into character.
This is my character... and he panicked.
And for about an hour he was really panicked.
It's a big mistake, Brian, if you don't mind me saying so.
And he was going to try to get a wig...
And then he realised, no, this actually worked,
and then he really was very generous with me
and would bring me in.
We used to have a thing called "rushes"
and every day we'd look at the films from the day before.
It was a real privilege to be invited in to see the rushes
and actors generally weren't, especially young actors.
But he knew of my interest in film
and he basically cut together edits of scenes
not just of my scenes but of other actors so I could watch
and just kinda say these are the takes that are gonna be in the movie.
And so I was lucky, people were very generous.
And those early days right up until you're hitting 'Top Gun',
you said you felt a lot of pressure in your career.
What did you mean by that?
There is a very steep learning curve, as you said,
I was a couple of months out of... But I...
I'd seen a lot of films but I'd never made films.
You always feel pressure, I put pressure on myself,
I'm very demanding of myself.
I feel the need... The need for speed.
I was always working as a kid, I always had jobs.
Even since I was eight years old I was working
so I just had a different viewpoint of life
and I realise that now in looking at it
in terms of goals, I had goals in terms of what I wanted to accomplish.
What were the goals you had in your head at that point?
I wanted to make movies.
I wanted to make movies and do it for the rest of my life.
As a kid I never really went to the same school
more than a year and a half.
I was someone who...
really wanted to have an adventure and do extreme things.
I'd always climb trees in the middle of...
when the wind's blowing
- and I used to write skits as a kid. - Really?
Yeah and entertain my family.
Cos your mum was in amateur theatre, wasn't she?
Yeah, but for me it was more...
I was naturally drawn to that, she never taught me anything.
She never did that.
But it was something that I...
I would just write skits and create characters.
And the winner is...
Tom Cruise, 'Magnolia'.
Can I ask you about one of my favourite performances of yours,
which is 'Magnolia',
cos it's just the most visceral thing and I think for a lot of people
it was one of those things that we hadn't seen you do before.
A lot of actors talk about drawing things from personal experiences
but I understand you don't like doing that.
So where do you pull from?
It's not that I don't like doing that,
it's that I don't find it necessary.
You look at a child who's there and he has the most amazing imagination.
Children, you're just looking at them and they can
become different characters instantly.
That's just how I develop character.
You just kind of feel it there...
and you just start working on a character
and I find something that I feel is interesting
and I just start playing with it.
I will not apologise for who I am.
Right on!
I will not apologise for what I need.
I will not apologise for what I want!
But if you look at 'Magnolia',
that's a character that I basically...
it was very different in the script.
The opening lines that I ended up doing
and I remember I had...
PTA was there.
And he wanted, he kind of was having me in
khakis and Adidas, and I was like, that's not this guy.
I didn't see him, so what I did was
I basically wrote the opening monologue.
Respect the cock.
And tame the c***.
And I have a screening room,
different workshop where I work on characters in movies,
and I lit exactly as...
This is the stage?
Literally built a stage in my screening room.
I said, look, I don't know how...
Cos words are something - you could talk 'til people understand -
I actually like just doing it.
I don't like talking about things too much
I get little things,
then let's do it, let's start creating it and see it.
And I remember I just went on stage and I did the opening monologue.
I said, look, I don't how... Here's the character.
I am the one who's in charge.
And so I did the whole opening character when you see him,
that opening, that's what I did for him,
I had the music there,
I lit it just to explain that character.
So sometimes you just start doing it
and a lot of that stuff, I was writing and working with him
and ad libbing a lot of that stuff.
When did you realise that was the best way you knew how to work?
Instinctually, that's just how I always work.
Sometimes what I'll do, I'll come up with a character
and then I'll put it into a movie.
And I'll rewrite the whole script based on that.
'Edge of Tomorrow' is a film that I made
where a couple of years before
I was just thinking about this character
and thinking about a style of film I wanted to do
and basically I rewrote the script from page one
and put that whole idea in there.
I'm usually shooting a movie while I'm prepping a couple of movies,
I'm in post on a couple of films.
Right now, I released 'The Mummy' and I'm shooting 'Mission'
and I'm in post on 'American Made'.
Jeez, mate, you need to do more with your time.
We are ordering you to land immediately.
I want to talk about 'American Made'.
There's a weird existential sadness I felt in the first 15 minutes
where Maverick from 'Top Gun' was like this beleaguered TWA pilot.
Something very, very sad about that.
Are you aware of the iconography that you bring to every role?
Is it something that factors into a production.
Definitely, I don't think about that.
No, if you look at the kinds of films and wide variety that I've made
it's wanting to challenge myself in every kind of genre,
in drama, comedy,
satire is something that when you look at 'American Made'
- that's satire. - Yeah, very black.
Based on a true story
of this guy who's found himself, almost like Huckleberry Finn
finding himself in the centre of epic moments in our history.
You never saw me.
He was a great pilot,
he was a great aviator.
And Doug Liman and I
We did 'Edge of Tomorrow' together
and we're working on this one
and Doug's a pilot and I'm a pilot
so any, all the flying people see in it...
- Is that really you? - Every part of that is me flying.
How big is the insurance bill on you?
I don't even look.
Why is it important to do that stuff physically?
You look at it,
you're not going to get that footage in any other kind of film.
You don't get shots like that.
We had to camp out there to get the shots that we got.
We were in Colombia, basically had to carry the fuel with us
and Doug and I, we had tents set up and we slept out there.
Really, it was guerrilla film-making
when we were making it and every day
the three of us... we were writing the script every day.
Me, Doug and the writer
lived in a house together while we were creating this story.
Is it scary to embark upon a production
knowing that you're gonna make changes throughout
or are you comforted by that flexibility?
That's movies.
You start with a script as an idea and it has to be treated as such
and you have to constantly find and create your film
and I want to make great films
and I want to entertain an audience
and I really task everyone and put their feet to the fire
with "This is it".
And every day means something.
And you have to be able to move quickly.
You have to have high-level, talented, skilful people around you
so that you can shift and move in the way that you need to move
and also admit when something isn't working and try to figure out
how to make it work and not just accept defeat.
For me, when I'm making a film I only get one chance to make it.
That's it.
So it's not just as simple as "Let's just go shoot the script."
That's just very much the beginning.
Tom Cruise, I could literally talk to you about this all day.
Thank you so much, man.