The thing that separates Tom Cruise from most action stars in the acting landscape and cements him at the top is his versatility and ability to tackle varied projects. Although the Top Gun star has become synonymous with performing dangerous stunts, the actor has repeatedly taken challenging roles throughout his decades-long dominating career and proved why he is the best in the business.
But one of these classics, Jerry Maguire, which comprises some of Cruise’s most memorable sequences, almost suffered a big blow after the director was fixated on getting Billy Wilder in the mix.
The director’s fixation with getting Billy Wilder almost sabotaged Jerry Maguire
Being a huge fan of the legendary director Billy Wilder and his works. Cameron Crowe was adamant about getting the actor to play the character of Dicky Fox in the comedy. However, after he approached The Apartment director with this offer, Wilder wasn’t too enthusiastic about the idea. This resulted in Tom Cruise joining Crowe to convince Wilder, but after meeting the Mission: Impossible star, Crowe recalled that Wilder was firing all his tanks and going full director mode. The Almost Famous director explained this made him fear the future of Jerry Maguire. He recalled,
“Finally we’re saying, come on, Billy, do it. He goes, tell me the story of the movie. They both look at me, and I start telling the story of Jerry Maguire. I could see Wilder is not really buying it, and I realize something as I’m doing this: he’s now going to steal Tom Cruise from me and destroy Jerry Maguire in one move; he was being crafty here,”
However, this wasn’t the case, and Wilder ultimately rejected the offer even after being approached by Tom Cruise, as Wilder claimed he wasn’t an actor. Fortunately, this wasn’t the end of the story.
Billy Wilder did like Tom Cruise’s Jerry Maguire
Although Cameron Crowe’s idol wasn’t initially sold on the idea of Jerry Maguire, upon its release, like most fans and critics, Billy Wilder also came to like the film. Crowe recalled that the Sabrina director later called him and expressed he loved the movie and even agreed to do interviews with the Jerry Maguire filmmaker. Crowe recalled,
“He called me, and he said, ‘I’ve seen your picture. I like it very much. Who’s this guy who took my part?’ Well, he’s not an actor, I said. Billy said he was good and that if I wanted to come over and interview him for a column, he was available. Of course, I had no column, but I went right over. That began these meetings with Billy Wilder that became the book Conversations with Wilder.”
But Wilder wasn’t the only rejection that Crowe had to face, as initially, Tom Cruise wasn’t his initial choice for the lead for the film. The director explained how he initially wrote the character keeping Tom Hanks in mind, but considering how great of a performance Cruise delivered, things did turn out for the best.
Jerry Maguire is available to stream on Netflix.
Source: Deadline
