Tom Cruise

Interview By: Andrea Tuccillo
AndreaTuccillo@TheCinemaSource.com

When you think of Tom Cruise, a lot of different things might come to mind: jumping on Oprah's couch, fighting with Matt Lauer, gushing over Katie Holmes, touting Scientology'Lately, it's tough to remember that Cruise is actually a movie star, who's supposed to be famous for, well, making movies. But with his recent Golden Globe nomination for his nearly unrecognizable comedic turn in Tropic Thunder as a fat, balding, foul-mouthed studio exec (Robert Downey Jr. wasn't the only one who went undercover in the film!), and his new starring role in Valkyrie, the story of the Nazi resistance in Germany, Cruise is back in the spotlight for what counts'his work.

Though Valkyrie was met with its fair share of production setbacks, Cruise never lost his passion for the story or his character. The film reveals the shockingly true, yet little-known, story of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, a heroic German soldier who masterminds a complex plan to kill Adolf Hitler. As history dictates, we know Stauffenberg's plan failed, but he dared to take action when no one else would. Stauffenberg's crisis was something Cruise could identify with.

'In movies we try to create the bad guys and I love the stories of the little fish swimming upstream against insurmountable odds and this actually happened,' he said. 'Also I grew up wanting to kill Hitler. I did. I thought, 'I hate these tyrants' and as a little kid, I remember four years old, I saw this war documentary World at War that Laurence Olivier did the narration for and I remember thinking why didn't someone just kill that guy' I understand now why, and this story I didn't know about.'

It was the untold aspects of Valkyrie that intrigued Cruise. The film was more than just a popcorn flick; it was a lesson in history. 'I read the script and I thought this is an incredible suspense thriller,' Cruise said. 'And I put it down and I said, 'Is this really true' Did this really happen'' And I met with Bryan Singer, the director, and Chris McQuarrie, the writer, and found out that actually these events and certain parts of the film where you think they're going to be a movie convention, they actually occurred.'

Cruise was also fascinated with seeing another side of World War II. The film shows that not all German soldiers were Nazis, and not all of them subscribed to Hitler's way of thinking. 'From a movie perspective I was on the edge of my seat and from a guy who enjoys reading about history and knowing about history I found it to be engrossing,' Cruise said. 'And also it gave me relief to know that it wasn't everyone, which we know I think instinctually as human beings it can't possibly have been everyone who wanted to do this [what Hitler did]. And to realize that yes, even in high command that there's someone like Stauffenburg and the resistance who opposed it and Stauffenburg almost right from the beginning opposed National Socialism and the Nazis and Hitler. That did give me some relief and I found it to be very inspiring to know that in movies we try to create these things and this really happened.'

Nonetheless, it was still strange for Cruise to slip into costume. 'When I put on the Nazi uniform, it's freaky having the Nazi uniform,' he said. 'All of us, we see that uniform and we go 'Nazi' but truly [Stauffenburg] was not part of that political party--the national socialist party--and he despised that ideology, despised those people. And that is something that I also found incredibly moving.'

Once he got past the perception associated with the uniform, he was able to put himself into Stauffenberg's mindset. 'For a moment putting on the uniform I remember we brought it in my office and all of us [the cast] were there,' he said. We spent 8 months prior to shooting prepping it and it was a moment. I put it on and then the other guys kind of put it on too, but also knowing what Stauffenburg felt as a man, I started to think of it in terms of Stauffenburg and his character and wearing that.'

Cruise had to wear an accessory which also took some getting used to. 'The eye patch,' he said. 'Yeah for a few days I was disoriented, actually.'

The cast and crew worked hard to make sure the costumes looked authentic on film. 'We did a lot of testing lenses and film to find the look of the film,' Cruise said. 'The look of the film was very important. The film at its core is a suspense thriller and you want a look of the film that is going to emotionally invest the audience and have it feel authentic. So we were doing tests and we were testing the wardrobe. We did a lot of research and we were looking at the uniforms. We were playing with light and lenses and fabrics and Joanna Johnson is a brilliant costumer and did a tremendous amount of research and came up with the texture and the kind of material to use to make it authentic and make it look authentic.'

Not only were the costumes authentic, but the locations were very real as well. 'When we were in Germany it was incredible because we were shooting in actual locations where these men and women were,' Cruise said. 'We were trying to create the kind of pressure, and understand the kind of pressure, that these men and women had to have been under. [Stauffenburg] couldn't even tell his kids. As a father, that's something that struck me because I have an incredible relationship with my children and to be able to discuss anything and everything'particularly here in America and also the way that I was raised, to be able to think for yourself no matter what people are saying or what images are coming at you, I've always [tried to] think for myself and not just go with the crowd or the masses. That's not how society was [back then]. You wonder how did that happen, where people weren't thinking for themselves, people weren't standing up to this insanity and tyranny. But here's this man who did. And to not be able to have those conversations with your children, to say this is not okay as they're being educated into this craziness'I know he hated this, but he couldn't tell his son that because his son could go to children in school and say 'My father says it's not okay what's happening, and he doesn't like Hitler and he doesn't like that there's a war and the treatment of the Jews.' And then suddenly the whole family could be [put in danger].'

As we've all seen in magazines, Cruise seems to be a doting father, and if there's anything he values above all else it's family. He said he likes to have family and friends around him on set, especially his children. 'Both of my kids, my teenagers, I've always had them with me when I'm working on a character and they enjoy it sitting in the makeup room or when I'm rehearsing certain scenes to watch me develop a character and even when I'm working on a script, I just like having them around,' he says. '[Suri] does like watch films and she does know dad's acting or mom's acting. We'll go to Kate's play [All My Sons] and Suri will be up in her dressing room and Suri will be there when Kate is rehearsing. Sometimes when they're running scenes on stage, Kate will hold Suri without the audience there, just to walk her around and she knows that it's part of her life. I'm sure she probably thinks everybody does this.'

But no, not everyone's dad could play in a broad comedy like Tropic Thunder and simultaneously switch into a serious, period film. 'I was working on [the character] Les Grossman and Valkyrie at the same time,' he says. 'I was working on Tropic Thunder with Ben Stiller because he brought me the script and we were playing around and then he went back and wrote the studio guy and came back and I said 'Oh man, he's a character I have to play and I gotta have fat hands and I wanna dance.' When you're playing characters sometimes things just come to you. I remember him looking at me like, really' And then he got into it and he directed me beautifully.'

Movies are what Cruise does best, and this year he's showing us that by popping off the tabloid covers and back onto our screens. And if he has to wear fake fat hands or an eye-patch to do that, so be it.