Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography by Andrew Morton

Author:Andrew Morton [Morton, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Entertainment & Performing Arts
ISBN: 9780312943370
Google: N-wumQEACAAJ
Amazon: B00969N8DW
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2009-02-03T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 8

At last he was truly where he felt at home, a place where he instinctively belonged. In the driver’s seat. In the cockpit. At the helm. Finally master of his own craft, producing, starring in, and fine-tuning his first blockbuster, Mission: Impossible. For the greenhorn producer, still only thirty-two, it was truly a risky business, as he steered a choppy course between the breezy demands of director Brian De Palma and the rocky financial realities of making a movie based on a half-forgotten 1970s TV show about maverick secret agents who foil endless dastardly plots of evildoers who want to take over the world.

Not only did he have the mental and physical pressures of playing a convincing leading man, in this case Special Agent Ethan Hunt, he also had to keep a weather eye on the budget and all the other routine details of sailing a multimillion-dollar project to the safe harbor of myriad multiplex screens. All that, as well as surviving an exploding fish tank, performing a backward somersault on a speeding train, and, famously, starfishing out his limbs as he was lowered 110 feet into a tightly guarded vault while carefully avoiding security laser beams. Perhaps his most difficult feat was not so much evading red lasers as finessing his way through the labyrinth of red tape in the former Communist Czech Republic, where filming took place in the winter of 1995.

For a controlling, driven perfectionist, the convoluted bureaucracy tested his patience to the limit. “Prague ripped us off. They are still getting used to democracy,” he said drily. Even a man-to-man chat with the country’s new President, playwright Vaclav Havel, failed to bring costs down. Still, one bonus of filming in the Czech capital was being able to stroll around the cobbled streets with Nicole, baby Connor, and Bella without attracting attention. It was a change to go sightseeing in daylight—normally the couple went out at night to avoid the attentions of fans and paparazzi.

Not that he had much chance to soak up the sights. As filming progressed in Prague and finally at the Pinewood Studios outside London, there was no doubt who was in command. Even though De Palma was twenty-two years his senior, the novice producer insisted he have the final say over every detail of the production: from ordering daily script rewrites to rerecording the film score so that he could hear more flutes. Perhaps his focus on sound quality was inspired, or even recommended, by his spiritual Svengali, David Miscavige, whose sensitive ear was the final arbiter of Scientology’s own musical offerings.

Certainly there were those in Cruise’s faith who saw in his depiction of Ethan Hunt, a secret agent who lived on the edge, distinct similarities to the character of the Scientology leader. “Mission: Impossible is fascinating because in Ethan Hunt I could see David Miscavige,” observed Karen Pressley. “Both the character and the man were striving for the ultimate thrill. Just as David was living vicariously through Tom Cruise, I could see that Tom Cruise was slowly becoming David Miscavige.

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