Tom Cruise

He assures that he is “in a good moment”, but the truth is that since he began his film career, he has always been in a good moment. He preferred the role of Nathan Algren, in The Last Samurai , to the one played by Jude Law , in Cold Mountain , which was offered to him first: he made so many demands that they finally discarded him. He explains this decision by his fascination with oriental culture. “I am fascinated by the spirit of Bushido, the samurai code of honor, which teaches strength, compassion and intense loyalty.” And although he did not get the long-awaited Oscar nomination that he dreamed of, his audience’s response has always been the same: to fill the halls.

Thomas Cruise Mapother IV was born in Syracuse (New York), on July 3, 1962. As a child he had difficulties in school, due to his dyslexia. “I had to try harder than the other kids, and pay a lot of attention. I put a lot of effort into improving myself by reading everything that fell into my hands, although I read more slowly than other people”, recalls the actor. His parent, Thomas III, an engineer, abandoned him, his mother—a frustrated actress-turned-teacher—and his three sisters when he was 12, without ever paying them a pension. To help at home, at a very young age he starts working as a newspaper delivery boy. Attracted by the quality of the teaching, he entered a Franciscan seminary in Cincinnati, where he considered taking the habit, until at the age of 18 he decided that his thing was to be an actor. For this, he moves to New York capital, where he works all kinds of jobs to pay for the acting academy. When he finished, he did not lack offers of small interventions in cinema. He was selected as an extra inTaps, beyond honor , but so dazzled the director, Harold Becker , with his perseverance, that he decided to give him a starring role, along with two other young promises, Sean Penn , and Timothy Hutton , with whom he ended up sharing an apartment in Los Angels. It was Francis Ford Coppola who would give him his golden opportunity, as a secondary in Rebels , in which the filmmaker discovered an important batch of young actors who were called the “brat pack”, that is, a bunch of brats, of which Matt was a part. Dillon and Rob Lowe , among others. As the protagonist, he swept the younger audience, with Risky Business. Since then, success has been his inseparable companion, and he claims not to be afraid of crashing. “I am convinced that failure is not that important. That allows me to overcome fear and move forward. I also know that if I want something to go well, I have to work hard to achieve it, ”she explained.

With the Scott brothers he had mixed luck. Directed by Ridley Scott , he starred in Legend , one of the great disasters of the author of Blade Runner , but Tony Scott turned him into a youth icon with Top Gun , the film that made teenagers of the time dream of becoming fighter pilots. And since then, Cruise has been at the top of the skies, thanks to the fact that he has been able to direct his career even better than the fighters in the movie. From that moment on, Cruise alternated productions aimed at young audiences, such as Cocktail , with prestigious works, such as The Color of Money, by Martin Scorsese ., in which the interpreter did not detract from a living legend, Paul Newman , although he was so impressed by the veteran actor that for a while it was noticeable that he was trying to imitate his gestures. Something similar happened when he worked with another great, Dustin Hoffman , on Rain Man . He continued like this for a long time, participating in very commercial products, such as Days of Thunder or A Far Away Horizon , but also in other more risky ones, such as A Few Good Men , by Rob Reiner , The Cover , by Sidney Pollack, or Interview with the Vampire , by Neil Jordan. His first Oscar nomination came with Born on the 4th of July , for his gritty portrayal of Ron Kovitz, a real, wheelchair-bound Vietnam vet. Shortly after the filming of this tape, he astonished the medical community, assuring that the Church of Scientology, which he joined, becoming one of its most distinguished members, had cured him of his dyslexia. With the box office hit Mission Impossible , also starring him, he began a solid career as a producer, together with his partner, Paula Wagner, with whom he would carry out titles such as Narc , The Others or the recent The Price of Truth . A couple of years he was focused on his work with Stanley Kubrick, in Eyes Wide Shut , but the critics only had words for Nicole Kidman , who has been number one ever since. The truth is that she was better at playing a shady individual, very different from the rest of her characters, in Magnolia , which was her third Oscar nomination (the second was for Jerry Maguire ). After turning forty, he tries to remain a mature actor, and for this, nothing better than to continue working with the greats: Spielberg, in Minority Report , the renowned craftsman Edward Zwick , in The Last Samurai , and Michael Mann , in the thriller Collateral ., whose filming has just finished. And just in case, a bet on insurance, the third part of Mission: Impossible , scheduled for 2005, and to be directed by Joe Carnahan , discovered by the star in Narc .