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But he is "a 10,000-pound gorilla" who can wrestle the titans of Hollywood and get impossibly difficult movies such as Without Limits made, according to legendary screenwriter and filmmaker Robert Towne, the man who won an Oscar for writing the classic thriller Chinatown.
Cruise is here as the co-producer of writer-director Towne's latest film, which made its Canadian premiere last night as a festival gala. Without Cruise, Without Limits "never would have been made," Towne said of the risky $24-million biographical picture about the troubled life and tragic death of American distance runner Steve Prefontaine.
Rising star Billy Crudup, who is also here with co-stars Donald Sutherland and Monica Potter, plays Prefontaine, a role that Cruise once considered but rejected in favor of producing because he had grown too old and too well known to play it.
"It's not really the business that I enjoy," Cruise admitted to a crowded press conference in a sweltering hall at a downtown hotel. "But I enjoy seeing people work and being involved in that, having the opportunity to work with Bob. It's rewarding being a part of that and helping these projects get made."
I reminded Cruise that I first met him when he was an eager, young, no-name actor making a silly little teen sex comedy called Losin' It in a stinking stockyards town in Southern California in 1982. At the time, Cruise had potential, ambition and passion. Now he has power and can use it creatively.
"Listen," he said after bursting into laughter at his Losin' It memories, "I've always loved movies. It's as plain and simple as that. I enjoy making them. The process of that is very difficult but every day's different.
"To work with the people I've had the opportunity to work with, I feel I've learned a lot from them. The one thing that I realize I could do in my situation, without whatever power and responsibility I have, is to channel it in a way that allows me to make good films, hopefully. That's always been my goal."
Power in Hollywood is a tool he uses, not something he sought out, Cruise said. "Listen, I didn't become an actor for power. It doesn't interest me. But it happened. I have it and I've had a lot of opportunities.
"But power is fleeting. It doesn't last forever in one's career. So I want to make the most of it when I do have it and make these kinds of pictures, make the kind of films that interest me and I want to see. I think it is as simple as that."
He wanted to see Without Limits on screen. So he co-produced it with longtime business partner Paula Wagner. "He does the same thing as a producer as he does as an actor," Wagner said of Cruise. "He's very organic. It's all about the work and the passion for the work."
What he hasn't got passionate enough about is a script he could direct himself, Cruise said. Busy in his family life -- he and actress wife Nicole Kidman have two children -- and busy as an actor, Cruise is looking for something that would inspire him to commit totally for a year or two of his life. "One day hopefully I'll find that piece."
One thing that did take more than a year -- shooting Eyes Wide Shut for Stanley Kubrick -- was off limits in yesterday's press conference. "Eyes Wide Shut was an extraordinary experience," Cruise said without elaboration. When he paused, grinned and seemed at a loss to say anything else about the now notorious shoot, Towne whispered to press conference moderator Robert Gray and Kubrick questioning was cut off.
Cruise shrugged and smiled again. Ever the savvy pro, he played the festival star game to perfection.