He is one of the last monsters of cinema, who tirelessly merges with the crazy stunts of his characters in defiance of the passing of time: Tom Cruise is expected on Sunday evening at the closing of the Paris Olympic Games, in a high-flying sequence.
An adrenaline-loving death-defyer and one of the very few stars to perform his most risky stunts himself, the American actor is expected to appear during the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games to carry the Olympic flag from one side of the Atlantic to the other, since Los Angeles (United States) will be the next host city of the competition in 2028.
Enough to further blur the line between his image and that of the hotheads he plays: military policeman Jack Reacher, fighter pilot Pete Mitchell, or secret agent Ethan Hunt.
The latter, hero of Mission Impossiblehas almost become part of the Parisian landscape since the 6the part of the franchise, “Fallout”, filmed in the French capital. With a motorcycle chase, and in the wrong direction, on the roundabout of the Star.
The scene added to the legend of Tom Cruise, 62, who has been discreet about his life off camera for more than 10 years, but is always ready for leaps into the void or swerves on a motorbike, without a stunt double.
On the set of Top Gun: Maverickhis latest global hit filmed aboard real fighter jets, Tom Cruise “wanted to go lower and lower”, director Joseph Kosinski told AFP in 2022.
Despite the weight of his years, Tom Cruise is in insolent form. Film after film, he unfolds his famous frenetic stride and remains capable of defying superhero franchises at the box office on his name alone.
Scientology fervor
The actor says he draws inspiration from another Hollywood icon, octogenarian Harrison Ford.
“I hope I’ll still be making films Mission Impossible “at his age,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald last year.
However, this stunt fever has not always monopolized his career.
Revealed by Risky Business (1983), a romantic comedy where he struts around half-naked to the hit “Old Time Rock and Roll”, Tom Cruise is first and foremost a jack-of-all-trades actor.
Young salesman overwhelmed by his brother’s autism in Rain Mana depressed Vietnam veteran in a wheelchair in Born on July 4tha husband destabilized by the desires of Nicole Kidman — his wife at the time, in life and on screen — in Eyes Wide Shut : the actor has long diversified his filmography, even after the beginning of the saga Mission Impossible in 1996.
He has been nominated for four Oscars, including three as an actor, without ever winning anything.
But he nearly sank in the 2000s, due to media missteps and his fervor for the Church of Scientology, a controversial organization, accepted as a religion in the United States but considered a sect in France.
In 2005, his appearance on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show, where he jumped on the couch several times with a manic laugh while professing his love for Katie Holmes, transformed him into a weirdo in the eyes of Hollywood.
Paramount Studios, scalded by the low box office receipts of its films, sold it.
Silence
The actor got out of this bad situation by reducing his speaking to a minimum and focusing everything on action.
A winning bet that allowed him to return to Paramount and now be praised as the savior of Hollywood, since the second part of “Top Gun” revived movie theaters after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Introduced to Scientology by his first wife, Mimi Rogers, he now carefully avoids the subject.
Its involvement in the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games irritates certain associations. Especially since Scientology has been very present on the sidelines of the Olympic Games, distributing anti-drug leaflets not far from the Stade de France, near which it has set up its new premises.
“The mere fact that we mention his presence is an insult to the victims. It really sends a bad message,” says Catherine Katz, president of Unadfi, an association defending victims of sects.
Dedicated to his stunts, the actor leaves no room for criticism. Only his distant past, before his divorce from Katie Holmes in 2012, is known.
His childhood was turbulent, between his parents’ divorce and attending about fifteen schools before adolescence. Before opting for comedy, he considered becoming a Catholic priest for a while.
Today, it is only known that he has residences in Florida and England. Every Christmas, he sends white chocolate and coconut cakes to celebrities he deems worthy of interest.
His silence is “a gamble that simply being Tom Cruise […] “is enough of an attraction to get people to watch his movies,” The New York Times recently noted. “Lately, he’s been mostly right.”