What Is Tom Cruise’s Best Role? Here’s What /Film Readers Had To Say
Tom Cruise’s first major film role was playing the character of Billy, Peter Hewitt’s best friend in the 1981 teen romance “Endless Love.” Billy tells a story about how he once set a pile of newspapers on fire for fun, panicked, put out the fire, and was praised by his parents for bravely saving their house from being burned down. The story inspires the Hewitt character to try the same trick with his girlfriend’s porch. He’s eventually arrested for arson.
In 1983, Cruise broke out with the one-two-three-punch of “Losin’ It,” “Risky Business,” and “All the Right Moves.” Since then, Cruise has remained one of Hollywood’s most reliable leading men, becoming the ur-example of a modern-day Movie Star. He has appeared in hit after hit, dazzling audiences with his handsome face and ineffable, unquenchable charm. He just appeared in his seventh “Mission: Impossible” movie, but there was a time when Cruise repeatedly endeavored to appear in a wide variety of roles for a broad swath of interesting auteurs. He’s worked with Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, Martin Scorsese, Barry Levinson, Ron Howard, Rob Reiner, Sydney Pollack, Cameron Crowe, Stanley Kubrick, P.T. Anderson, Steven Spielberg, and Michael Mann.
And yet, and yet … it’s rare that Cruise will play “a role.” Although he is a talented performer, Tom Cruise is often most appealing for playing Tom Cruise. He may be a fine actor and clearly likes to push his limits, but he is better at being a movie star. Cruise’s naturalness on camera, in-born ease, and handsome face are a more magnetic draw than his range.
/Film recently polled readers on Facebook on what Cruise’s best role might be, and it was up to them to decide if that meant his best performance or his most appealing character. Here are the results.
Slashfilm Readers Have A Lot Of Opinions On Tom Cruise’s Best Role
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