Tom Cruise might be one of the biggest, bravest, and most unbeatable stars of today’s day and age, but that wasn’t always the case: especially at the beginning of his career in the film industry. While he has become as fearless as can be throughout his span as an actor – judging from his top-rated works like the Mission: Impossible and Top Gun movie series – it wasn’t the same for him while auditioning for All the Right Moves (1983).
As revealed by Back to the Future star Lea Thompson, Tom Cruise was “really nervous” during his audition for the 1983 sport/drama film, which is a surprise, considering how that movie wasn’t his first one in the industry either.
The Reason Why Tom Cruise Was “Really Nervous” During His All the Right Moves (1983) Audition
All the Right Moves starred Tom Cruise in the lead role as Stefan Djordjevic, a teenage football player willing to go the extra mile for the football scholarship that could be the only way to get his much-desired exit from his dead-end steel-mill town: but with several obstacles in the way.
Lea Thompson, who starred as his love interest in the film, talked about the young Cruise she worked with for the 1983 hit in a recent interview with Parade. Claiming he is “very intense and kind and dedicated and polite, just as he is now,” the Back to the Future star went on to recall how nervous the Jack Reacher star was during the film’s audition.
“I remember our audition at Fox. I was trying to calm him down because we were both really nervous—he was not exactly right for the part because he was supposed to be a potential college football player and he’s only, what, 5-foot-7?”
However, Cruise has traveled a long way from there. Now regarded as one of the most respected and legendary stars in the entire movie industry, it won’t be an exaggeration to claim he has achieved mega-success as an actor. And that blows Lea Thompson‘s mind as well. Commenting on his immense victory, she said,
“It does blow my mind. I know Tom Cruise is an anomaly and deserves it. Like, who would ride a motorcycle off a mountain [in Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One]? Not me. I’d just climb the pyramid of bodies.”
That being said, Tom Cruise is, indeed, an exceptionally talented personality.
Tom Cruise Achieved Tremendous Fame Merely 3 Years After All the Right Moves With Top Gun (1986)
While Tom Cruise began acting in the early 1980s at the age of 18. By the age of 21, he had already bagged his breakthrough role with his epic 1983 romantic comedy, Risky Business before going on to be seen in All the Right Moves later the same year. But there is one movie that made him even more famous than Risky Business.
And that is his 1986 blockbuster, Top Gun. Released a mere three years after his incredibly ‘nervously’ auditioned film, the first megahit film from the Top Gun franchise made Cruise a household name. Becoming a huge commercial hit, it grossed a whopping $357 million worldwide over its mere budget of $15 million.
Out of this, Tom Cruise‘s share stood at $2 million: a commendable value at the time. Not only this but the Mission: Impossible star’s incredible performance in the movie also went on to spawn a sequel more than three and a half decades later in 2022, Top Gun: Maverick, which was an even bigger hit than the initial movie.
Keeping these in mind, it seems pretty unbelievable that even a great master at work like Tom Cruise could get nervous over a small-budget film like All the Right Moves!
Source: Parade
