Tom Cruise is an actor like no other and that’s a concrete fact. When you think of Tom Cruise, you think of high levels of acting and life-threatening stunts performed with an ever-charming smile. He and his Mission: Impossible franchise contributed immensely to the action genre, turning it upside down.
However, there was something else the films contributed to – a hilarious parody of itself. The parody starred Tom Cruise as himself and Ben Stiller playing the role of the superstar’s obsessive stunt double. In fact, Ben Stiller was so dedicated to the role that he agreed to cut his honeymoon short just so he could perform with Tom Cruise.
A Small Sacrifice for Tom Cruise
The 2003 MTV Movie Awards saw Ben Stiller and Tom Cruise star in a short parody of Mission: Impossible 2. Stiller played Cruise’s stunt double, or as he puts it, his “stunt one-ble,” Tom Crooze. However, one of the most hilarious skits of all time almost did not happen as Stiller was enjoying his honeymoon with Christine Taylor at the time. But this was the only time Cruise was available to shoot. MTV Movie Awards producer, Joel Gallen stated,
“I very much wanted Tom Cruise to be on the Movie Awards. But then he realized he had already committed to be at the [‘Mission: Impossible II’] premiere in someplace in Korea, so there was no way he could be at our show that night.”
When they finally figured out the timing, Stiller was still not onboard. Gallen recalled writing an email to the actor asking him to come back from his honeymoon two days earlier than expected. Surprisingly, Stiller was so into the skit that he decided to comply with the request and flew 15 hours to get there on time.
Well, Stiller cutting down his honeymoon might have been for the better, as after 5 years of the parody, he came out with Tropic Thunder, which seems to have been set into motion by the parody, given the resonance between the satirical characters. In the film, Stiller plays an action star, quite like Cruise, whereas Cruise plays the role of Les Grossman, a repulsive studio executive producing Tropic Thunder. The film also stars Robert Downey Jr., Matthew McConaughey, Jack Black, and more.
Tom Cruise Came Up with the Character Himself
In an interview with Esquire, director Stiller stated that he had not created the character of Les Grossman and that it was all Cruise’s doing. He decided that having a studio executive would be fun. In fact, Cruise even came up with the idea to make Les dance in the film.
“Tom Cruise had the idea to play Les Grossman in the movie. That part did not exist. He said, ‘Well, there’s no studio executive and that would be really fun to be that guy.’ And he had this whole idea of what the guy should look like. It was his idea to dance. And I remember when we did a makeup test, someone handed him a Diet Coke and then he just started moving.”
Cruise also recalled to BBC Radio 1 how he insisted on playing the character and how he wanted to “have fat hands and dance.”
Thanks to Stiller, Cruise, and the rest of the team, the world got a cult classic worth revisiting every now and then. The film went on to make $195 million at the box office and was met with mostly positive reviews. Downey was also nominated for an Oscar for his role in the film. Tropic Thunder won the Hollywood Comedy of the Year Award at the 12th annual Hollywood Film Festival.
You can rent/buy Tropic Thunder on Prime Video.
Source: MTV
