In all its gossipy making—extended shoots, reshoots, surprising casting of Cruise as a Nazi—Valkyrie has created such a stir in Tom Cruise's tabloid oeuvre. We just had to ask him at the Hollywood premiere: Did anybody ever tell you not to take on this film? Well...
Tom just laughed heartily—not couch-jumping guffaw, far more his old charm-school stuff, which we much prefer—at the notion of someone telling him what to do. "On this one, ya know, it was such a compelling story," he told the Truth. "You just know you gotta make it. I wanted to work with Bryan Singer, and his approach to it was very unique and interesting. I had to do it."
Love that the good-looking dude has the guts to fight the naysayers who insist the Top Gun star has no business playing Gestapo chiefs. Moves like that pay off. And we so know you're gonna win an Oscar one day, since ya got so close with Magnolia, Mr. C. When you finally do nab that little gold guy, is it gonna be for a drama or, your new genre of choice, Tropic Thunder-style comedy? "Well, I don't know!" said Tom. "It'd be fun either way."
Would a Tony suffice? Ya recently said you'd wanna do a B'way musical—any particular one you got your eye on?
"I said musical! Not just Broadway," corrected T.C. "I like to dance, we'll see. I like testing myself, seeing if I can do it. Seeing if I'm gonna fall on my face, and how hard I'm gonna fall. But giving it my best shot...It'd be fun."
Since Katie's performing in New York, was it sad not having your wife around on her big 3-0? "Yeah...we planned this months ahead, and she wanted me to be here tonight. But I spent last night with her and left early this morning, and I set up a bunch of fun surprises for her throughout the day—I set it up so that John Lithgow and the whole [All My Sons] audience at the end of the show wished her happy birthday."
Damn, way to put pressure on K.H. when your 47th comes along.
—Additional reporting by Becky Bain