CRUISE BACK IN CONTROL
Once unhinged star now golden boy
For all the tricky aerial stunts in “Top Gun: Maverick,” the most impressive one takes place on the ground.
Tom Cruise has piloted his way back into America’s hearts and made everyone forget his days as an unhinged Scientology ambassador with a penchant for jumping on Oprah’s couch.
Toxic turn
The sequel — which was delayed multiple times due to the pandemic — raked in a recordbreaking $156 million its opening weekend.
Now 59, Cruise is still performing his own stunts, showing off his impossibly ripped torso onscreen and flashing his trademark smile that seduced audiences early in his career. He’s working international red carpets in Japan and Cannes and even hobnobbing with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Cruise’s fingerprints are on every aspect of the movie, including the intense flight training for actors and pushing for an in-theater release — the timing of which couldn’t be more perfect. Moviegoers are even welcomed with a prerecorded message from the actor thanking them for making the trip to see it in theaters.
It’s been such a triumph and testament to Cruise’s enduring movie magic that it’s difficult to remember the “Jerry Maguire” star had become almost toxic two decades ago.
While promoting “War of the Worlds” in 2005, the usually private star infamously stood on Oprah’s couch and proclaimed his love for then-fiancée Katie Holmes. He then sat down with Matt Lauer of “Today” and lambasted him over the use of antidepressants, saying, “You don’t know the history of psychiatry. I do.”
He also was increasingly seen as the face of Scientology, which was starting to endure a p.r. crisis of its own. (An embarrassing video in which Cruise extolled the virtues of Scientology was leaked in 2008.) It didn’t help that he had parted ways with Pat Kingsley, his hard-nosed, controlling publicist, in favor of his sister, Lee Ann DeVette.
However, that was only part of the story.
At first, what happened offscreen didn’t affect his bigscreen appeal. In fact, the Steven Spielberg-directed flick opened to $64.9 million. But then, the following year, Viacom head Sumner Redstone briefly ended Paramount’s working relationship with the actor’s production company, citing his “unacceptable” behavior, which he said negatively impacted ticket sales for “Mission: Impossible III.”
The effect on Cruise was profound. “It was like he came out in front of the curtain, and he had tomatoes tossed at him, so he closed the curtain. He made his world very small,” Amy Nicholson, the author of “Tom Cruise: Anatomy of an Actor,” told The Post.
Tight access
He dropped his sister for veteran publicist Paul Bloch, who passed away in 2018, and opted for safe blockbusters that continued to pull in money and adoration from the masses.
Unlike, say, Will Smith and Johnny Depp, he shut down any attention on his personal life, and used red carpet premieres to charm audiences and “set the template for the global star,” said Nicholson.
According to Matt Belloni of Puck News, the “Top Gun: Maverick” premiere was highly controlled and media outlets were vetted to ensure they wouldn’t ask about Scientology. “It’s almost exclusively TV, and outlets were informed they must use professionalgrade cameras, no iPhone footage allowed. That’s unusual, but Tom is Tom, and Tom’s got to look great,” Belloni said.
A veteran publicist who has worked with the actor said he’s “very focused” during the premieres and “genuinely a nice person to staffers, publicists and fans.
“When you are in his presence, you feel like you are in the presence of a movie star,” she said. “There’s not many actors I can say that about.”