Tom Cruise is easily one of the biggest Hollywood stars of all time. Even though he has been in the industry for over four decades, he is still sought after by the best directors to star in their projects. The actor himself exerts his influence too, often to bring out the best in him, and his decisions have always paid off.
However, he does not always get his way, as Zack Snyder recently revealed. The director confessed that he wanted the Mission: Impossible actor to play a certain character in one of his films, but Cruise sought a different role.
Zack Snyder wanted Tom Cruise to star in Watchmen but not for the role the actor wanted
Zack Snyder is an esteemed director who has been at the helm of several iconic films, such as 300 and Man of Steel. In 2009, he adapted Watchmen, a classic DC limited series written by Alan Moore, into a film of the same name.
Snyder confirmed that he met with Tom Cruise to star in the film. Unfortunately, the discussions did not amount to anything because the actor wanted to play a different role.
The Man of Steel director recently appeared on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, hosted by Joshua Horowitz. He revealed that he wanted Cruise to play Ozymandias, but the actor wanted to play Rorschach. It did not work out because Snyder had already cast Jackie Earle Haley to play the vigilante.
“I wanted Tom Cruise for Ozymandias. Tom wanted to play Rorschach. Which he obviously could have done, but we already had [Jackie Earle Haley] and Jackie is unbelievable. But I certainly would have considered Tom in retrospect if I hadn’t had Jackie,” he told Horowitz.
Rorschach is an iconic character, a masked antihero. His mask stands out because the inkblots shift, thus resembling a Rorschach test. Cruise is no stranger to playing grey characters, and he would have made the character his own, but Haley was just as incredible.
Matthew Goode went on to play Ozymandias. The film did not perform well at the box office, minting only $187 million, when the budget was around $120 million. To this day, Cruise has played an assortment of characters, but he has yet to don a superhero’s suit.
The actor came close to playing another iconic superhero
Cruise is a very talented actor, and he has led his projects to success on a global scale. He has always tried to challenge himself, pushing his skills to the limit.
The Top Gun actor is an acclaimed action hero, and he came very close to playing Tony Stark in Iron Man. Robert Downey Jr. played the titular superhero, and the film kicked off Marvel’s dominance in the field. Kevin Feige revealed why the role went to Downey Jr. instead in the book MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios.
“Ten years earlier, when the Iron Man rights were at 20th Century Fox, Tom Cruise, then thirty-four, had flirted with the idea of playing Stark. According to Feige, however, Cruise’s asking fee at the time was more than even a profitable studio like Fox was willing to risk on an untested superhero property,” reads an excerpt from the book (via Time).
Robert Downey Jr. left an indelible mark as Iron Man. As for Cruise, at 61 years of age, his options to play a superhero are quite limited.
The Watchmen is available for streaming on Max.
