“I Think He Wanted Reaction”: How Tom Cruise’s Love Scene In 1988 Comedy Went Wrong Recalled By Co-Star

Summary Gina Gershon reveals that she accidentally broke Tom Cruise’s nose while filming a love scene for Cocktail after she was tickled.
Cruise starred in a wide variety of movie genres during early years of his career, but he mostly just does action now.
Cruise is unlikely to make another comedy like Cocktail anytime soon given his upcoming slate of blockbuster projects.
Cocktail star Gina Gershon recalls accidentally breaking Tom Cruise’s nose while filming a love scene for the 1988 comedy. Directed by Roger Donaldson, Cocktail stars Cruise as Brian Flanagan, a young bartender who takes a job at a bar in Jamaica where he eventually falls in love with Jordan, an artist played by Elizabeth Shue. Gershon stars opposite Cruise as Coral, Brian’s early love interest in New York City, before he eventually begins a new life in Jamaica.
During a recent appearance on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, Gershon reflects on filming Cocktail, specifically recalling a love scene she shot with Cruise that went horribly wrong.
Gershon recalls warning Cruise that she was ticklish, but reveals that her costar tickled her anyway to elicit a response, and Cruise ended up sustaining an injury. Check out her recollection of the event below:
“It was my first love scene ever. He was a gentleman. At one point, he starts off under the covers and I told him I was very ticklish. I said, ‘No, no, don’t ever do that.’ And in one take I think he wanted reaction and he grabbed my stomach and I kneed him right in the nose. “And I was like, ‘Oh my god, I just broke Tom Cruise’s nose.’ And he was like, ‘No, no, you told me. It’s my fault.’ And he was so protective over me. He was great.”
Will Tom Cruise Ever Make Another Movie Like Cocktail?
Cruise Is Now Interested In Only One Genre
When Cruise was on the rise in Hollywood during the ’80s, he starred in a fairly wide variety of films. From Risky Business to Top Gun to Rain Man to Born on the Fourth of July, Cruise was able to show off his impressive range as an actor. While Cruise would continue to take on interesting roles in subsequent decades, his focus has narrowed somewhat in the 2010s and into the 2020s, and he now almost exclusively does action movies.
Related 10 Best Tom Cruise Movies, Ranked With a career spanning more than 40 years, Tom Cruise is one of Hollywood’s biggest stars. From comedies to action movies, the actor has done it all.
One reason why Cruise does so many action movies is, of course, because he’s very good at it, and his films in the genre tend to be a cut above others in Hollywood. His work in the Mission: Impossible franchise, for example, including 2023’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, continues to push action movie boundaries, as did his work in 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick. That being said, it would be exciting to see Cruise, who is now 62 years old, take another crack at comedy or a straight drama.
Cocktail was a box office hit in 1988, but was lambasted by critics.
While it’s certainly possible that Cruise will return to his dramatic roots, a straight comedy seems unlikely given his career trajectory and the current state of the movie business. Cruise is interested in making big, theatrical experiences, and that’s not what comedy is anymore. Cruise’s future projects include Mission: Impossible 8, Top Gun 3 and a thriller set aboard the International Space Station, so it’s not looking like audiences will be getting another movie in the vein of Cocktail anytime soon.
Source: Watch What Happens Live