Seven films down with an eighth and final edition launching in cinemas this month, Mission: Impossible is undoubtedly one of contemporary cinema’s most enduring franchises.
But back in 1996, what made a young Tom Cruise, red hot in Hollywood thanks to hits like A Few Good Men and Interview with the Vampire, board the spy thriller?
“It was the music,” Cruise joked this evening in London, where he took part in a wide-ranging discussion about his career onstage at the British Film Institute. “I loved the theme music.”
The first Mission film was Cruise’s first credit as a producer, and he told the crowd in London that he sought the franchise out because he was interested in investigating how he could change the action genre.
“It was about looking at Mission and thinking ‘what can we do with action’,” he said. “It was about how I can evolve action and storytelling and imbue that kind of storytelling with greater amounts of emotion. That’s my interest. So I studied stunts and different cameras to develop my abilities and develop the technology.”
Education was one of the central topics discussed this evening by Cruise. The veteran actor told the crowd in London that he didn’t take part in any formal acting education but made his “own film school” by studying the careers of particular actors, directors, DoPs, and reaching out to them for advice as his career grew.
“I was able to interview Scorsese, Hoffman, Newman, and Spielberg. And every step of the way, I studied movies and I studied the studio system and distribution,” Cruise said, adding that as a young actor, he would “force the studios” to send him to different countries to learn how movies were made outside of America.
“At the time, Hollywood was very Hollywood. It was about America, but I was very much about the global,” he said.
Cruise said he would spend months on the road experiencing different countries. And to make sure that his expeditions didn’t take away from his acting duties, he said he introduced the studios to the idea of international red carpet premieres.
“I came up with the red carpet premieres, so we could bring the Hollywood culture to these places every day and then travel around,” Cruise said.
During the talk, which was moderated by broadcaster Edith Bowman, Cruise shared lengthy anecdotes about shooting particular movies from his oeuvre, like A Few Good Men. Directed by Rob Reiner, the Oscar-winning classic sees Cruise go toe-to-toe with Jack Nicholson. The film is probably best remembered for it’s intense court scenes where Cruise interrogates Nicholson. He described working with Nicholson as an “extraordinary experience.”
“I remember the Nicholson scene, where we’re in the court. I remember looking up at the rafters, and it was filled with people,” Cruise said.
“We were making movies in LA at that point, and the rafters were filled with people just coming in to see the scene. The town knew we were shooting, and they would just come to see us go at it.”
Speaking about Top Gun, Cruise said he first met the film’s director, Tony Scott, thanks to a recommendation from his brother, Ridley Scott. Cruise had been shooting Legend (1985) with Ridley.
Cruise told the audience has was impressed by Tony and wanted to make Top Gun. And as part of his deal to star in the pic, he negotiated a pact with the studio that gave him access to “every aspect of production” to see how the film’s producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson crafted the film.
After the film’s success, Cruise said the studio immediately engaged him in discussions about a sequel, but he consistently rebuffed their advances because he wanted to develop as a young artist.
“They really wanted me to make Top Gun over and over,” he said. “But I wanted to develop my talent in different areas, and I wanted more challenges.”
When asked by Bowman whether he has any challenges left that he’d like to tackle, Cruise was definitive, telling the audience that he never wants to stop making movies and is keen to shoot a musical.
“My goals are endless,” he said to loud applause from the London crowd.
Cruise is in London primarily to receive the BFI Fellowship. He will be handed the honor, the BFI’s biggest prize, on Monday. Previous Fellowship honorees include Spike Lee, Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese, Satyajit Ray, Tilda Swinton, David Lean, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, Steve McQueen, Akira Kurosawa, Nicholas Roeg, Orson Welles, Ridley Scott, Ousmane Sembène, Bernardo Bertolucci and Souleymane Cissé.
Cruise will be in Cannes next week for the launch of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. The film sees Cruise reunite with Christopher McQuarrie from a screenplay he wrote with Erik Jendresen. Cruise stars with Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Henry Czerny, Mariela Garriga and Angela Bassett.
Paramount Pictures will launch the film stateside on May 23.
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