Featured Image Credit: TriStar Films
Topics: Celebrity, Tom Cruise, TV and Film
James Hilsum
Tom Cruise is already known for being one of the all-time great Hollywood actors, but this heart-warming story while filming the blockbuster hit Jerry Maguire proves he is also a very genuine man.
The 1996 film marked Cruise’s second Oscar nomination as he starred as a star sports agent aiming to create a better and more caring relationship with his clients after criticism from a player’s agent’s son.
Director Cameron Crowe revealed now revealed a number of fascinating behind-the-scenes anecdotes about Cruise, which included the support he gave to a young actor that pulled out of the child part - which was eventually played Jonathan Lipnicki.
“Tom stayed in touch with the mother of the kid who had asked to be replaced,” Crowe said to Deadline.
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“Tom wrote him and called and sent him stuff. I only knew this because his mother called to say, ‘Thank you for everything Tom Cruise has done to make my son feel good about even being in the movie and working with him as much as he did.’
“I went to Tom on the set and said I couldn’t believe what he’d done, spending the last few weeks making sure his spirits were high.
"Tom just said, ‘Well, I just don’t want that guy growing up, looking at movies and feeling disappointed about what happened. I want him to love movies.’ Wow.”
Renée Zellweger co-starred with Cruise in the American romantic-comedy, and Crowe revealed the effect that the actor’s presence had on the cast when performing one of the film’s most iconic scenes.
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This occurs when Maguire pleads with his estranged wife to give him another chance amid a crowd of other women who have also had their hearts broken.
“Oh, Tom couldn’t wait for that scene,” Crowe added.
“I was a little nervous about some of the lines, like, ‘You complete me.’ It’s a slippery slope; if you lean wrong into a line like that, it’d probably be the first thing you cut. But he said, ‘I want to say I love you in this movie, and I want to say it with that line.’ And by the time he got to it, it was two in the morning, at the end of a long week.
“Tom surprised the women because we didn’t tell them that he would be there to do the scene with them that day. In he comes, and in the most loving way, this heavyweight was ready for the knockout. He gently crushed it. The ladies were crying.
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"The crew members were crying. And Renée was a mess. He just took great pleasure in being able to deliver a line that he knew I was on the fence about.
"He’d said, ‘Just give me a shot, man. You’ll see if I got it, or if I didn’t.’ And, you know, I’m still just so proud of it.”