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Finding someone who doesn’t know the name Tom Cruise would probably be quite difficult. He belongs amongst the timeless Hollywood icons, which have dozens of blockbusters to their name. Amongst his best-known achievements is the Mission: Impossible series, where he is known as Agent Ethan Hunt. His spy films have gained a lot of fans around the world also thanks to incredible stunts during which Tom Cruise does not use a stunt double.
He does everything on his own and even participates in the design of the nerve-wracking scenes themselves. At his age, he proves that he is unstoppable, and his form could be envied by much younger men. So, how does he do it? He only takes 1200 kcal a day and engages in a lot of physical activity. So, let’s see what Tom Cruise’s journey to the greatest glory was like and how he stays in shape.
Childhood in the sign of frequent moving, with no friends and a violent father
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Thomas Cruise Mapother IV was born on July 3, 1962 in the American city of Syracuse. He had to get used to a busy life since childhood. His family often moved and little Tom grew up in different parts of North America. He has three sisters and is the only son of teacher Mary Lee Pfeiffer and electrical engineer Thomas Cruise Mapother III. Childhood is a painful topic for Cruise precisely because of his father, whom he characterized as a rapist and a coward.
He often beat him for even the smallest things and kicked him every time he messed up. As a boy, he felt anxious about his father’s behaviour, and he didn’t feel any better at school. Because they often moved, for his peers he was always just the new child with ugly shoes and weird accent. That’s why he had no close friends, he was bullied, and that everything was aggravated by his dyslexia.
Acting talent since the fourth grade
When Thomas Mapother III. found a job in Canada, he moved there with his whole family. Little Tom was enrolled in a local elementary school, where a fourth-grade teacher discovered his acting talent. It was here that he first tried the acting profession, which he later developed. When he was 12, his mother decided to file for divorce and returned to the states with him and one of his sisters.
Mary Lee Pfeiffer later remarried, but the young acting talent still did not have a stable background. Frequent moving continued, and several sources mention that Cruise was enrolled in up to 15 schools around that time.
Love of sports, but also poverty and the will to become a priest
In addition to his passion for acting, Tom Cruise also developed his love of sports at school. He excelled in field hockey, but once he accidentally fell and broke part of his front tooth. This is where his famous photo from his youth comes from, with not really appealing front teeth. For some time, he even devoted himself to wrestling and he wanted to become a professional. However, after a knee injury, he had to leave the wrestling team and pursue acting. Growing up in humble circumstances, Tom Cruise was forced to work from the age of eight to help his family.
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Thanks to this, he developed a good work ethic. To this day, he is still known to be the same. His first work experiences included mowing lawns, delivering leaflets and raking leaves. He also tried to save on the cinema ticket with the money he earned because he had been dreaming of making films since he was four. However, these dreams changed several more times for him and when he was 14 he wanted to become a priest. After a year, however, he left the seminar and ended up acting again.
Expelled from the university team because of beer and an acting debut in a high school musical
Cruise played football for the university team in his senior year of high school. However, he was expelled from the team after being caught drinking beer before the match. So, he quit football and decided to devote himself fully to his acting career. He made his first debut in front of the audience at the age of sixteen, when he performed in the high school musical Guys and Dolls. It is this moment that is considered the official beginning of his successful acting career.
The promising actor worked in New York for a while after school. He later moved to Los Angeles, where he tried his luck at various castings for television roles. The success came in a small role in the film Endless Love (1981). It was followed by a couple of smaller casts, most notably the drama Taps (1981), in which Cruise played alongside star Sean Penn. Although he did not get much screen time in the film, his performance attracted many critics and this opened the door to more roles.
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Top Gun Maverick, a vampire alongside Brad Pitt and the award-winning Jerry Maguire
Two years later, Tom Cruise landed the lead role in the comedy Risky Business, which is considered his first box office hit with millions in sales. It was one of the milestones in his career, which skyrocketed shortly after. He showed that he deserves the attention in the cult film Top Gun, where he acted alongside Val Kilmer as fighter pilot Pete “Maverick” Mitchell.
In preparation for the role, he flew three times in F-14 fighters. He threw up on the first flight, but managed the other two without any issues. He later actually learned to fly fighter jet. Furthermore, he passed difficult exams and flying became his passion. He even owns a hangar with several planes. He later starred together in the hit horror movie Interview With A Vampire.
Another success was the war drama Born on the Fourth of July, for which he received his first Oscar nomination and won a Golden Globe. In 1996, he also starred in another blockbuster, the comedy Jerry Maguire. For this role, he received a second Oscar nomination and a second Golden Globe for Best Actor.
Self-directed stunts, where he often risks his life
Eventually, the iconic Mission: Impossible series was born with the main character in the form of agent Ethan Hunt. It is characterized by quality action and stunts, which both crew members and spectators watched breathless. Tom Cruise does everything himself without using a stunt double in like most of his colleagues. He is willing to hold his breath and jump out of the building, climb high obstacles or shoot dangerous scenes with explosions.
Thanks to Cruise’s courage and passion for his work, in the Mission: Impossible series, we were able to see him descent a rocky cliff with his bare hands or witness the scene where an enemy was holding a real knife just a few millimetres from his eye.
Not even the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa, did not stop Ethan Hunt. He descended this almost a kilometre tall building. He also jumped on the side of a plane flying with the actor to a height of 1500 meters.
Such stunts are really very dangerous and even Cruise did not avoid injuries. Most of it was various scratches and bruises, but one of the bigger problems happened to him during the filming of Mission: Impossible – Fallout. As he ran across roofs and jumped from building to building, one of the jumps did not work out and he accidentally hit his feet on the concrete part of the building.
The cameras captured an ugly-looking shot of his leg swaying in a very unnatural way, when he broke his ankle. Despite the great pain, however, he pulled himself along the edge of the building and finished the scene like a professional.
His great shape thanks to a lot of physical activity and only 1200 calories a day
You will probably agree that the demanding preparation and realization of stunt scenes also requires excellent condition. Cruise’s form could be envied by much younger men. As he claims, an active lifestyle helps him. In one interview, he mentioned that he is intensively involved in kayaking, exploring caves, fencing, rock climbing, hiking, running and, of course, strength training. He is a big fan of variability and tries to alternate endurance physical activity with strength.
With this lifestyle, quality food goes hand in hand. Information about Tom Cruise’s eating routine comes from various sources, interviews and social media posts. Most of them claim that the actor tends to follow a relatively atypical way of eating, which was suggested by his friend David Beckham. The Hollywood star will allegedly only need 1,200 calories in the form of mostly grilled dishes with a minimum of carbohydrates.
However, apparently it is not a classic diet. Instead, Cruise has 15 small snacks that are prepared by his personal chef. Sources also mention various types of nuts or lyophilized blueberries, which the actor allegedly loves the most. During the training, he allegedly focuses mainly on abs, pull-ups, squats and exercises with dumbbells.
Three marriages and controversial Scientology
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Tom Cruise’s private life is marked by three marriages. In the second half of the 1980s, he married older actress Mimi Rogers. However, their marriage ended after less than three years and the reason was the seven-year age difference between the partners. Cruise later met actress Nicole Kidman while filming Days of Thunder. The chemistry between them worked not only on the set, and after the wedding they were considered Hollywood’s own Couple of the Year. They adopted two children together, and in 2001 shocked the world by announcing that they were having a divorce.
Five years later, Tom Cruise married Katie Holmes. Their relationship had a very fast progress and was one of the most publicized, especially after Katie became pregnant. She gave birth to an actor’s daughter, Suri, and converted to Scientology. However, even this marriage did not last, and Katie Holmes filed for divorce in 2012. The reasons for the public are not yet entirely clear, but speculation has emerged in which the Cruise’s faith played an important role. He belongs to the well-known and passionate Scientologists, and for some time he made this really clear in the media.
He is best known for the statement that Scientology helped him overcome his dyslexia. He also openly criticized actress Brooke Shields for taking antidepressants while recovering from postpartum depression. According to Cruise, the drugs were only supposed to mask the real problem and are only the result of pseudoscience. Scientology was supposed to be the real life goal and solution for everything at that time. Due to these statements, he got into a more serious exchange of opinions with moderator Matt Lauer during The Today Show. He acted as a fanatic in the discussion and later apologized for his behaviour.
Supports charities, talks with fans and is very expressive with irresponsible crew
Tom Cruise is also known for supporting charity and loving his fans. He enjoys talking to them and, according to some sources, spends literally hours with his fans, especially during special occasions such as film premieres or red carpet events.
However, he is unlikely to be beloved by an irresponsible crew that did not comply with security measures during the preparation of the seventh part of Mission Impossible in 2020. The shooting of this film was accompanied by strict rules due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which included, for example, protective masks. When Tom Cruise learned that some members of the crew were not following these measures, he absolutely exploded.
His reaction went around the world thanks to an authentic recording, during which he shouted aggressively at the crew. In an emotional speech from behind the scenes, he pointed out that filming should be done in accordance with the highest standards. They’ve had to overcome many restrictions, and its implementation created thousands of jobs that a pandemic could deprive people of. Filming was only allowed if everyone followed strict safety measures, which were, of course, primarily to protect the health of the entire crew. During his angry reaction, he was also swearing and emphasized several times that he never wanted to see anything like that again. It was the swearing and the aggressive tone that divided the fans into two camps.
One side condemned the actor and claimed that such behaviour had no place in the filming. However, other fans defended Cruise for his strictness and assuring safe conditions during a global pandemic, when health comes first. He also tried to guarantee all this by renting two cruise ships for the crew in Norway, which served for the filmmakers as hotels and were supposed to keep them safe, far away from other people. The whole event was to cost half a million pounds, which Cruise paid from his own pocket.
Are you a Tom Cruise fan? Which of his stunts fascinated you the most? Could you imagine receiving only 1200 kcal, on which the actor allegedly functions? If you liked the article, don’t hesitate to share it with your friends.
[1] Betty Jackson - Where Did Tom Cruise Grow Up? – https://celebanswers.com/where-did-tom-cruise-grow-up/
[2] Tom Cruise Talks About His Father – https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tom-cruise-talks-about-his-father/
[3] Aaron Granger - What Was Tom Cruise's Life Like Before He Became Famous? – https://www.thethings.com/tom-cruise-life-before-fame/
[4] Exclusive: Tom Cruise's high school friend reveals his past as a teenage wrestler – https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2431193/Exclusive-Tom-Cruises-high-school-friend-reveals-past-teenage-wrestler.html
[5] Tom Huddleston Jr. - These were ‘Mission: Impossible — Fallout’ star Tom Cruise’s first jobs as a kid – https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/27/mission-impossible--fallout-star-tom-cruises-childhood-jobs.html
[6] Tom Cruise – https://www.biography.com/actor/tom-cruise
[7] Mission Impossible Trivia: Tom Cruise Shot This ‘Knife In The Eye’ Scene With Real Knife & It Was His Idea – https://www.koimoi.com/hollywood-news/mission-impossible-trivia-tom-cruise-shot-this-knife-in-the-eye-scene-with-real-knife-it-was-his-idea/
[8] Jonathan Sim - Top 10 Craziest Mission: Impossible Stunts – https://screenrant.com/mission-impossible-craziest-stunts/
[9] Now 58-Years-Old ,Tom Cruise Shares His Secrets to Staying So Youthful and His Training Plan – https://www.menshealth.com/uk/fitness/a754595/tom-cruises-secrets-of-youth/
[10] Brianna Morton - Tom Cruise’s ‘Brutal’ Workouts Could Lead To ‘Serious Damage?’ – https://www.gossipcop.com/tom-cruises-brutal-workouts-could-lead-to-serious-damage/179188/
[11] Tom Cruise says Scientology helped him overcome dyslexia – https://news.abs-cbn.com/entertainment/01/05/09/tom-cruise-says-scientology-helped-him-overcome-dyslexia