Tom Cruise was allegedly slated to play an alternate version of Iron Man in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Given the success that the actor secured with Top Gun: Maverick, mixing the stardom of Cruise with a superhero film is an idea any producer would be happy to bank on.
However, Cruise himself turned down a superhero film, way before Iron Man or even Green Lantern had hit theatres. The film was to be directed by none other than Steven Spielberg, which would have created quite the hype, given the talent that the entire creative team would have brought to the table. So the question stands: What caused Cruise to turn down the project?
Tom Cruise could have been slated to play Zorro
The Mask of Zorro was a film that was offered to Tom Crusie for the lead role. The actor, however, decided to turn it down for one glaring reason. The actor believed that it was important that the character of Zorro was played by an actor of Latino descent. Given that the film was already on shaky grounds with the casting of Catherine Zeta-Jones, of Welsh descent, to play Eléna Montero, a character of Latino heritage.
Mikael Salomon, the screenwriter, spoke to Slashfilm about the production, talking about the film being offered to Tom Cruise:
“Early on, [Spielberg] wanted to offer it to him. Have you heard that? He wanted to offer it to Tom Cruise. And my friend and countryman Bille August had done ‘The House of the Spirits’ with all non-Latinos, and he got in so much hot water because of that, and they picketed the movie in South America. And I said to Steven, ‘You know, that’s probably not a good idea, just for that reason.'”
As entertainment history would have it, the character would be essayed by Antonio Banderas, who would go on to immortalize the role in Hollywood history.
Tom Cruise himself agreed that he should not play Zorro
Tom Cruise was also in agreement with Spielberg about his involvement in the project. The actor took it upon himself to talk to Mikael Salomon and work his concerns out. As the writer tells it:
“One day I was doing a commercial and my assistant said, ‘Mikael, there’s Tom Cruise on the phone for you.’ ‘Tom Cruise? Okay.’ I had worked with him on ‘Far and Away.’ I was the [director of photography] on ‘Far and Away.’ So he called me up and said, ‘Thanks for the offer, but I think it’s not a great idea for me to do this movie because, as you know…’ I said, ‘Tom, you’re a very smart guy. Absolutely, you’re absolutely right.'”
The idea was to have ethnically correct casting in the films. Banderas was able to play the character of Zorro to perfection, carrying the same charm over to even parodies of Zorro, such as Puss in Boots from the Shrek franchise, where he was a clear homage to the character.
