CHICAGO -- Tom Cruise is not as stupid as you might think.
Having carved out a huge career for himself as an 8 x 10 glossy, a superstar who has earned millions in movies that many would sum up as pap, Cruise is poised to show that he is capable of far more than he has led anyone to expect.
There have been hints. In 1996, Cruise was surprisingly good in the surprisingly good film, Jerry Maguire. He did it again three years later with his wonderfully snarky performance in Magnolia. Otherwise, Cruise is the star of such films as Cocktail, Top Gun, A Few Good Men, Days Of Thunder, Far And Away and some 20 others like that. Say no more.
Cruise's work in Minority Report, which opens Friday, may be added to the small-but-growing list of his interesting performances. This is the first movie in which he has been directed by Steven Spielberg, although the two men have been friends for years. Spielberg calls Cruise the original Energizer Bunny and says of his appeal to moviegoers, "The audience sees that he looks them in the eye in every part he plays. The audience sees him make eye contact."
Indeed. Cruise, who will be 40 next month, certainly displays the focus and energy for which he is always praised. He is boy-scout earnest, unfailingly polite, seemingly intent upon doing his work and doing the right thing. There is something oddly innocent about the guy.
Cruise interrupts himself and sometimes lets a sentence hang in the air, uncompleted, but he only gets hesitant with reporters if he senses the conversation getting anywhere near his personal life. Currently linked romantically to Penelope Cruz, Cruise was recently and messily divorced from Australian actress Nicole Kidman, with whom he has two children, nine-year-old Isabella and seven-year-old Connor.
He says, "Personally, I've never been one to be interested in gossip. As a kid, going to 15 different schools -- I just never have been part of a sewing circle. I'm not interested. But a lot of people are. Some people like to know and I'm happy to share with people and help them when I can -- but I think, 'To what extent?' I don't mind things being stated, good or bad, if they're the truth."
Minority Report is a futuristic tale about a world in which there is no murder -- all such crimes are seen in advance by a trio of psychics, and the appropriate authorities arrest the potential murderers before the crime takes place. Things go wrong when the head policeman himself, played by Cruise, becomes a suspect.
Minority Report is based on a short story by Philip K. Dick, whose short stories have been made into such movies as Total Recall and Blade Runner, but Spielberg, Cruise and screenwriter Scott Frank have taken the narrative far past Dick's original work. Frank, who also wrote Get Shorty, Out Of Sight and Little Man Tate, among other films, has said of Cruise, "The thing that's great is -- he's fearless."
The sci-fi aspects of Minority Report lead Cruise to talk about the future, about technology, world events and terrorism, surveillance, his faith in the space program, and other big-brotherish topics. He is enthusiastically worried about many things in the world. He says, "In 50 years, they will be able to see into your homes. Me, I'm a gadget guy. I'm not afraid of technology, but I am concerned about the future." He sounds a tad paranoid, perhaps one result of the endless scrutiny afforded celebrities.
In answering a question about audience expectations, Cruise says, fairly passionately, "Nobody could go beyond the expectations I have for myself, the pictures I do and what I expect from the people I work with."
He says, simply, that he knows what excites him as an actor, and hopes that will translate to an audience.
Cruise says, "I always feel like I'm just beginning. You learn a lot, but, all I know is what I like and what I want to do. I've tried to make different kinds of pictures. For myself, I've always thought, 'Can I do this? Is this going to work?' I try to set the bar for myself, so that it's interesting for me."
He continues, "And when I signed up for Born On The Fourth Of July, I was thinking, 'What are you doing? Ruining your career?' And Rain Man: Is that picture ever gonna get done? And Vampire -- by the time I hit New Orleans I said to Nic -- Isabella was really young -- 'Please don't come for a few weeks because I don't know what's going to happen. It's a little crazy.' Were they gonna burn crosses on the lawn in front of the house I rented?"
Laughing, he continues, "You never know what's gonna happen, what's gonna be successful. I go in hoping the studio will make their money back, and get a better return than if they put it in the bank, because they're allowing me to do this."
Allowing? It was Cruise, actually, who sent Minority Report to Spielberg, not vice-versa, and Cruise who got the ball rolling on Vanilla Sky. He is far more involved in his films than merely starring in them, sometimes finding the project in the first place or contributing script and casting ideas.
"This is something I take seriously," he says. "I enjoy taking it seriously. I have never committed to a movie and said I was going to make it, and then did not. Which is how I work. After I finished Vanilla Sky I shaved my head and went to work on Minority Report the next day. When I say I'm going to do something, I do it."
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