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Happy 10-year anniversary to Tom Cruise’s greatest role ever: Les Grossman

Tom Cruise’s long acting career boasts many celebrated roles: “Maverick” in  Top Gun , Jerry Maguire in  Jerry Maguire , Ethan Hunt in the  Mission: Impossible  series. Together, they tell the story of an artist extraordinarily committed to his craft, one who knows only one gear and that’s the highest. Tom Cruise is perhaps the last bona fide American movie star left.

And none of his roles exemplify his career in totality more than Les Grossman in  Tropic Thunder , a film that turns 10 this month.

Grossman, for the uninitiated, is merely a supporting character in the 2008 comedy starring Ben Stiller and Robert Downey Jr. as actors in a Vietnam War film who get lost in the jungle, and are pursued by a real and very dangerous drug gang that controls the area. Grossman is the blustery, foul-mouthed, reprehensible studio executive in charge of the ill-fated action movie. Donning fake hair and gobs of prosthetics, Cruise’s famously handsome features are nearly unrecognizable.

Les Grossman is not one of Cruise’s biggest roles, nor surely his most impressive performance. (Cruise fans don’t agree on what is, though Frank Mackey in  Magnolia  and Vincent in  Collateral  are often cited among his best work.) Rather, Grossman offers audiences a microcosm of Cruise’s process, his intensity, his signature chutzpah. It’s all of Cruise’s most admirable traits as an actor, distilled into one fat suit.

The story of how Grossman came about is almost as Tom Cruise-y as the role itself. As Grantland’s 2015 oral history of Grossman pointed out, Grossman materialized during a low point both personally and professionally for Cruise. It was three years after the infamous Oprah couch debacle , and two years after his studio, Paramount, dropped him following some controversial comments the outspoken Scientologist had made about psychiatry. Cruise needed a role that would endear him to audiences—and the industry—once again.

Cruise came up with the idea for Grossman (who was not in the original script) himself. Besides the violent drug gang, Cruise thought, the film needed a second antagonist, but one back in Hollywood who’d exert pressure on the fictional movie with unhinged rants, rather than with guns. Etan Cohen, one of the film’s writers, remarked that Cruise was all systems go from the jump. “A lot of actors hold back at table readings. Tom was the opposite,” he told Grantland. “He worked insanely hard at making that character unique. You could tell that he’d never done anything like it before and was embracing it.”

Unlike some of his more energetic characters, Grossman did not require that Cruise climb the Burj Khalifa or do barrel rolls piloting a helicopter , but he did need to dance in a fat suit. Cruise was so committed to the character that he was at an actual risk for dehydration, Aida Caefer, who fashioned the suit for the movie, told Grantland. He choreographed his own dance moves, often practicing them out in the open on set. It took a 12-person team of makeup experts to design the silicone prosthetics that transformed the movie-star proportion of Cruise into the unkempt husk of the debased Hollywood mogul Grossman.

Viewers have long wondered if Grossman was meant as a caricature of anyone in particular—Harvey Weinstein comes to mind. The disgraced executive, who bears something of a physical resemblance to Grossman, was also notorious for his extreme outbursts as the head of Miramax, among the other, more criminal predilections that 87 women have now accused him of.

The character was so successful that Cruise appeared in costume at the MTV Movie Awards two years later, dancing in a skit that made fun of Cruise’s famous routine from  Risky Business ,  and again live on stage with Jennifer Lopez . Rumors were floated of a Les Grossman spinoff movie in the works in 2010, but it never materialized.

Tom Cruise is an inscrutable figure off the screen, one who’s closely associated in Scientology, with its dubious philosophies , and some of its even more dubious leaders . That has made it tough for some moviegoers to separate his on-screen persona from the man.

Les Grossman was an opportunity for Cruise, for the first and perhaps only time in his career, to poke fun at himself and his compulsion to do everything as big and as bold as it can possibly be done. As silly and grotesque as the character may be, Cruise’s performance gave us a glimpse of the man beneath the tabloid headlines. And he’s a man who likes to dance.

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Ludacris Personally Approved Tom Cruise’s ‘Get Back’ Dance in ‘Tropic Thunder’ | Video

The rapper and actor reveals how Ben Stiller privately screened the movie for him before sign-off

Ludacris answered a “Hot Ones” question that he’s never been asked before on Thursday’s episode, telling host Sean Evans how his 2004 single “Get Back” came to be featured in “Tropic Thunder” — with a Tom Cruise-in-a-fat-suit dance break no less.

Apparently, star, director and cowriter Ben Stiller hosted a private preview screening of the 2008 action comedy for Ludacris (birth name Christopher Bridges) and his management team.

“Did Ben Stiller personally seek your approval to use ‘Get Back’ at the end of ‘Tropic Thunder’ for that Tom Cruise dance scene?” Evans asked.

Ludacris was pleasantly surprised by the question.

“Yo, I don’t think anyone’s ever asked me that, that’s a great question,” he said between heat levels of the talk show’s chicken wing-eating structure.

“Not only did he seek approval, respectfully, he invited us to watch the movie before it came out and it was literally just me, him and my management and we watched the whole movie,” Ludacris said. “Just to see at the end for him to ask me, ‘Is it OK to clear this?’ And I was like, ‘Absolutely.’”

Turns out, the Grammy-winning rapper and actor (also known best for his work in the “Fast & Furious” film franchise) was already a fan of Stiller’s work and just excited to be in the room.

“I was more — I was such a Ben Stiller fan that I was more happy that he invited me personally to come watch the movie before it came out.”

“Tropic Thunder” starred Stiller, Jack Black and an Oscar-nominated Robert Downey Jr. as actors filming a big-budget war movie who get caught up in real military action. Tom Cruise is a slimy Hollywood producer who makes a memorable supporting turn towards the front of the film — but the real action happens towards the credits.

As the scene unforgettably goes, it’s Oscar night and war movie-within-a-movie is cleaning up with the Best Actor trophy going to Stiller’s Tugg Speedman. Cruise is watching the telecast from the comfort of his office when, to celebrate the win, he turns the lights down, turns the amps up and gyrates in celebration to Ludacris’ “Get Back.” Watch it here .

And watch Ludacris’ full “Hot Ones” interview in the video above.

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Screen Rant

Why ben stiller wanted to cut tom cruise's tropic thunder dance.

Tom Cruise made a memorable appearance as a horrid movie producer in Tropic Thunder, but his famous dance scene was nearly cut by Ben Stiller.

Tom Cruise's Tropic Thunder dance is one of the most famous scenes from the movie, but director Ben Stiller had to be talked into filming it. Tropic Thunder is a 2008 all-star action-comedy, where a group of pampered movie stars making a Vietnam war movie run afoul of a drug cartel in the Golden Triangle. The movie received mostly good reviews and was a solid hit, but while it can be genuinely hilarious in its parody of Hollywood moviemaking, it attracted controversy for elements like Robert Downey Jr's character - an intense method actor - donning blackface to play a role.

Tropic Thunder  cast Tom Cruise in a surprise cameo as Les Grossman, the monstrous producer behind the movie the actors are filming. Cruise was going through something of a slow period in his career prior to Tropic Thunder , with 2006's Mission: Impossible III proving to be the lowest-grossing of the series while award baiting drama Lions For Lambs also underperformed. While Grossman is ultimately a small role, Cruise's sheer commitment to the role and endless stream of quotable dialogue made him a highlight.

Related: Edge of Tomorrow Is Tom Cruise's Best Chance At Another Mission: Impossible

Tom Cruise donned lots of prosthetics to portray Len, including a fat suit and a bald cap. Some viewers didn't even realize it was Cruise in the role until Tropic Thunder's credits, which also featured arguably the movie's comic highlight. This sees Grossman, bathing in the awards success of the movie he produced, pulling off some wicked dance moves in his office set to Ludacris’s “Get Back.” In 2019 Cruise reflected on the movie during an interview with Conan O'Brien, and revealed Ben Stiller was VERY hesitant about the dance and most of the actor's ideas for the part.

When Stiller first offered Cruise Les Grossman, it was the latter's suggestion for the character to dance and have " fat hands ." The director didn't quite gel with these ideas and asked if Cruise could just play the role looking like himself with zero dancing. Cruise followed his instincts for Tropic Thunder and decided to do a make-up test for Stiller, which included doing some dance moves. Stiller was still doubtful as he watched Cruise perform without any backing music, but afterward when took footage from this test and cut it to "Get Back," he realized he had gold.

The positive reaction to Cruise's role in Tropic Thunder almost led to the creation of a Les Grossman spinoff, but while a script was developed it yet to happen. It's strange that one of the most iconic moments in the comedy hit almost didn't happen, but it's a testament to Tom Cruise's commitment to a bit that it's still so fondly remembered.

Next: Tropic Thunder: Why RDJ's Blackface Wasn't Controversial

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Tom Cruise Tells ‘Conan’ The Secrets Behind His ‘Tropic Thunder’ Character And Dance Moves

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Tom Cruise isn’t known for comedy, but he does have it on his resume. Tonight on Conan , he resurrected his Tropic Thunder  character Les Grossman’s dance moves and colorful language.

Cruise is making the rounds after a surprise appearance at Comic-Con today, but decided to focus in his Conan segment on comedy, a lesser-known aspect of his talents.

The 2008 action-comedy Tropic Thunder , directed and starring Ben Stiller , featured Cruise along with Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr., Jay Baruchel and Brandon T. Jackson as a group of actors making a Vietnam War film. The prima donnas are dropped in the middle of a jungle and have to use their acting skills to survive.

One of the memorable moments was from Cruise, who received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture for his efforts in the film.

Cruise told Conan that he did imitations as a kid, but relished the chance to take on the role of Grossman, a demanding studio executive who dances during the end credits to Ludacris’s “Get Back.”

“Les Grossman is a fun character,” Cruise said, and talked about taking hip-hop classes to prepare for the role. He told Stiller that if he appeared in the film, “I’m going to dance. And I need fat hands.”

Watch the video below for more on how he stepped outside his usual acting zone.   

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Tom Cruise Is Planning to Sing and Dance in an Original Movie Musical

He is also keen to revive his 'Tropic Thunder' character Les Grossman.

At the top of the list is an "original song and dance-style musical" which they will write as a starring vehicle for Cruise. While audiences might associate Cruise primarily with dramatic action roles, he has sang on-screen before. And no, that's not a reference to the terrible lullaby scene from the middling War of the Worlds remake. He was critically lauded for his pipes in the 2012 adaptation of the Broadway show Rock of Ages , in which he played a washed-up musician and performed impressive renditions of some hair rock anthems, including "Pour Some Sugar on Me" by Def Leppard and "Wanted Dead or Alive" by Bon Jovi.

No plot details have been announced about this new musical, although given Cruise's propensity for throwing himself into life-threatening stuntwork, it's likely he will train like a professional tap-dancer to get the moves right.

And speaking of stunts, another one of Cruise and McQuarrie's pending projects is the eighth Mission: Impossible movie, which will see Cruise "speed flying." They're also keen to create a brand new action franchise together. Most bafflingly though, they are reportedly excited about the prospect of bringing back Les Grossman, Cruise's scene-stealing character from the 2008 comedy Tropic Thunder .

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This Unexpected Cameo Is Tom Cruise’s Best Performance Ever

Tom Cruise’s cameo in Tropic Thunder demonstrates how thoroughly he can disappear into a role.

To say that Tom Cruise is one of the biggest Hollywood celebrities ever to exist would either be hyperbole or an understatement, depending on the era and measurement. His career thus far has spanned three decades and is about to exit Earth’s orbit - literally . He is known for pushing the boundaries of what his body and skills can portray on film, such as the incredible stunts he regularly performs for his mega-franchise Mission Impossible, or the meticulous training he puts himself through to perfect a character . His global celebrity has restricted him to only a few chances to let his hair down and have fun for a change, but when he does the result is unforgettable. In fact, arguably his best performance ever given was just such an occasion when he played Les Grossman in 2008’s brilliant Tropic Thunder.

Undoubtedly known as a serious actor and an action star, Tom Cruise rarely puts himself in comedies of the magnitude that is Tropic Thunder . The outrageous and hilarious spoof brought out the best of Cruise’s comedic talent and teased audiences to a future movie that sadly never materialized. Tropic Thunder starred Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black, and several other Hollywood celebrities like Matthew McConaughey, Nick Nolte, Bill Hader, and Dany McBride. Though controversial in many regards, it became a global success and one of the funniest comedies of the early 21st Century. This already perfect comedy is elevated by sneaking in Tom Cruise behind a fat suit and a bald cap!

RELATED: These Movies Are Perfect Parodies Of 80s And 90s Action

“Mm, That’s Good Satire”

Tropic Thunder operates on many layers of comedy, satire, parody, and unintentional real-life irony. First, as a comedy, it is a movie about making a fake movie that turns “real life” dangerous. Second, in satire, it skewers the bloated Hollywood organism . Third, the characters parody a range of Hollywood types like the cocaine-addled comedian, the overzealous Oscar hound, and the chiseled action star diva. Figures behind the camera are also parodied like the first-time director type, the brown noser executive assistant, and the high adrenaline power-mad Studio Executive. All these types so common to Hollywood are turned into caricatures on screen for the industry and audiences’ amusement.

A fair example of how Tropic Thunder 's once-praised satire has not exactly aged well is Robert Downey Jr.’s character. This is where it gets ironic as well. 2008 is the same year Downey starred in the first Iron Man . He was regaining his celebrity after recovering from years of addiction abuse. He was already a marquee actor from his Oscar nomination sixteen years earlier for Chaplin (1992). Most likely just for kicks, he decided to star alongside Ben Stiller in Tropic Thunder as the Australian method actor and five-time Oscar winner Kirk Lazarus.

Lazarus is such a serious actor that to portray the black soldier Lincoln Osiris he undergoes a skin alteration to change his own skin color black. He deepens his voice as well to play Osiris, but it is a naïve, misunderstood, offensive, yet almost innocent to the point of gross stupidity, performance. Lazarus is so “focused” and “committed” to the role that he blindly dives headfirst into blackface. Despite the fact that the movie is supposedly making fun of the idea of blackface, at the same time, it is still doing it. This is the sort of "satire" that has (thankfully) fallen out of favor with audiences.

Lazarus is so dedicated to winning another Oscar that he creates an unrestrained, horrible, racist stereotype of a character – the exact opposite of what would get him nominated for another Academy Award. The unintended irony to all of this is that in real life, Robert Downey Jr. then gets an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for playing Kirk Lazarus playing Lincoln Osiris in Tropic Thunder .

Tom Cruise as Les Grossman

Tropic Thunder is already an unrivaled comedy by those chops alone , but to feature a cameo from Tom Cruise in a role so debauched as Les Grossman is just unbelievably awesome. Cruise has played in comedies before, such as his brief appearance playing Austin Powers in 2002’s Goldmember but never with the same commitment and depth as Tropic Thunder. Never before or since, sadly.

Originally, Cruise was supposed to play Ben Stiller’s agent Rick Peck ( ultimately played by Matthew McConaughey ). Instead, Cruise offered up a new character of his own invention. Wearing a fat suit, a bald cap, enlarged plastic hands, and a whole lot of chest and arm hair, Cruise became Les Grossman, the Studio Executive providing the money behind the movie who is also a raging foul-mouthed ogre. The personality of Grossman and the villainous role he would play in the film was all initiated by Cruise and developed alongside Ben Stiller. This proves that on top of everything else Cruise can do on camera , he can also be an original source of enormous comedy.

Les Grossman could be considered Tom Cruise’s best performance because he essentially erases himself in the character. If one was not told that Les Grossman was played by Tom Cruise, one would have a very hard time recognizing the actor. The mannerisms, the dance moves, the look are all out of the ordinary for a superstar like him, which is why the performance is such a magnificent sight to behold. Grossman is such a unique character it highlights the talent of Tom Cruise to a new degree. The fact that he never played a role like this again is a heavy loss for the greater movie-going public.

Tropic Thunder is a brilliant high watermark for comedy. To quietly contain Tom Cruise’s best performance ranks it even higher on the scales as one of the best movies ever made. Hopefully, after Tom Cruise finishes with the Mission Impossible franchise he launches the Les Grossman Cinematic Executive Universe .

MORE: Starship Troopers: Was The Buenos Aires Asteroid Attack A False Flag?

Tom Cruise Loves To Show Off His Dance Moves, Even On A Date With A Famous Actress

I, like everyone else, had a lot of questions after reading about Tom Cruise reportedly breakdancing and doing the splits at Victoria Beckham’s birthday party . Like: can I see the footage? I would very much like to see the footage. Also, is this something he does a lot? Maybe not “a lot” but showing off his dance moves in public is something Tom Cruise has done before — on a date.

During a 2013 episode of Chelsea Lately , Melrose Place actress Heather Locklear discussed her night out with the Mission: Impossible star in the early 1980s. “We had auditioned for something together and he didn’t have any friends,” she said. “I mean, not that he doesn’t have friends. Out here he doesn’t have friends. We went out and we went dancing.”

She continued, “You know in Risky Business where he does that dance in his underwear and does the splits? We were dancing at a club and he went into that! He starting doing the splits.”

Locklear felt awkward while Cruise did his thing, according to US Magazine . “You just kind of stand there and don’t know what to do. Do you dance around him?” she said, adding, “It was weird. I just sat down.” That was the first and last time they went out together. I wonder if he still sends Locklear a cake ?

(Via US Magazine )

New Details Emerge About Tom Cruise Possibly Bringing Back His Tropic Thunder Character For More Dancing

Ben Stiller , Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr . may have been the leading men of Tropic Thunder , but depending on who you ask, some might say Tom Cruise stole the show as ill-tempered, foul-mouthed studio executive Les Grossman in the action comedy. Donning a fatsuit, prosthetic hands and bald cap to bring this character he invented to life , Cruise’s performance, which included sweet dance moves , scored a Golden Globe nomination, and there’s been talk for years about Grossman coming back. Now those efforts are reportedly being revived, with Cruise looking to make this happen with Christopher McQuarrie.

Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie have been tight ever since the latter took over directorial and writing duties on the Mission: Impossible franchise, starting with 2015’s Rogue Nation (though McQuarrie did do uncredited rewrites on Ghost Protocol ). These two are currently in the midst of working on Mission: Impossible 8 , a.k.a. Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part Two , but the public can also see their work together now in the form of Top Gun: Maverick , which McQuarrie co-wrote. Following the success these two have jointly had on stories focused on Ethan Hunt and Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, Deadline reports that Cruise and McQuarrie are now “fixated” on Les Grossman, although it’s unclear if they’re looking to craft an entire movie around him or include him in one of the other film projects they have cooking.

The prospect of a Les Grossman spinoff movie first emerged back in 2010 , two years after Tropic Thunder came out. In 2012, Michael Bacall, who wrote this version of the spinoff, said the story would explore the origin of Grossman’s anger issues. A decade later, one wouldn’t have been faulted for thinking that this project had been shelved, but evidently Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie are determined to bring this character back to the big screen. Should they stay the course on a straightforward spinoff, two questions come to mind. First, will Bacall’s script still be used, or will someone else be hired to deliver a different take? Second, will any other Tropic Thunder characters appear in it?

As already mentioned though, there’s the possibility that Les Grossman could simply retain his supporting character status in something else Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie are working on. Deadline’s story also mentioned that the duo have an "an original song and dance-style musical” that Cruise is intended to lead, as well as “another original action film with franchise potential.” It’s hard to envision Grossman fitting organically into either of these projects, although the image of an angry Grossman belting out songs in a musical is entertaining enough that I’d gladly pay to see the final product. We already know Grossman has the moves, as you’ll see in the clip below, so why not throw singing into the mix too?

To be clear, just because Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie are working on these projects doesn’t necessarily mean all of them will see the light of day. Maybe something Les Grossman-centric stands a better chance of moving forward because it’s tied to a popular comedy, or maybe studio executives are more interested in Tom Cruise leading another action movie or showing off his musical chops (he previously sang in Rock of Ages ) rather than reprising a character from a movie that was released almost a decade and a half ago. Oh, and let’s not forget that Cruise also still has that movie he intends to shoot in outer space with Doug Liman . No doubt that one will carve a lot of time out of his schedule.

CinemaBlend will continue sharing updates on what’s coming up in Tom Cruise’s career, but for now, you can still see Top Gun: Maverick scoring box office records in theaters alongside plenty of other 2022 movie releases , and we’ll see the actor back in action as Ethan Hunt when Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part On e arrives on July 14, 2023.

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Connoisseur of Marvel, DC, Star Wars, John Wick, MonsterVerse and Doctor Who lore, Adam is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He started working for the site back in late 2014 writing exclusively comic book movie and TV-related articles, and along with branching out into other genres, he also made the jump to editing. Along with his writing and editing duties, as well as interviewing creative talent from time to time, he also oversees the assignment of movie-related features. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Journalism, and he’s been sourced numerous times on Wikipedia. He's aware he looks like Harry Potter and Clark Kent.

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Tom Cruise Jokes He ‘Still’ Dances in His Underwear 40 Years After Iconic ‘Risky Business’ Scene

The ‘Mission: Impossible’ star is remembering how dancing in briefs helped launch a decades-long movie career

Shannon Finney/Getty ;  Warner Bros/Kobal/Shutterstock (

Tom Cruise is looking back fondly on his breakout role. 

Of his iconic scene in 1983’s Risky Business — in which he danced in only a shirt, briefs, and socks — Cruise, 60, joked with Access Hollywood : “Look, I grew up dancing in my underwear in my house. Who didn’t?”

When asked if such dancing continues 40 years later, he responded with a smile: “Yeah, I still [do].”

Cruise, who is currently promoting his new film, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One , revealed that Risky Business is what helped start him down the path to action stardom.

The scene in which his teenaged character Joel Goodsen — celebrating a house to himself — struts and dances to Bob Seger’s rendition of “Old Time Rock & Roll” has been recreated and parodied repeatedly since the box office success of the movie.

Cruise expressed awe that the film turns 40 this year. “That’s amazing,” he told Access Hollywood. “I made it in ’82, I was 19 when I made it. I'll never forget that night, that day that I shot that scene.”

 Warner Bros/Kobal/Shutterstock (

Risky Business writer and director Paul Brickman, Cruise added, worked with the actor on its famous opening shot of Cruise sliding into the center of the frame.

“I had to figure out how I slide across the floor in my socks,” remembered the Oscar nominee. “So I saw the opening frame and I go, ‘I want to hit center frame.’ And it didn't work. And then I said, 'Well, let's just put [slick] stuff on the floor — and I slid all the way across.”

A sticky spray placed in the center of the frame eventually did the trick, Cruise said, revealing how “it was a learning experience for me… I went in the editing room and I saw the shots and looked at how editorially they were putting it together. So I started really understanding that cinematic process right from the very beginning.”

He continued, “I feel very lucky to have that opportunity, to be able to have that kind of script and that kind of material at that age.”

Scott Gries/Getty Images For TFF

Fresh off the box office-smash success of last year’s Top Gun: Maverick , Cruise recently called moviemaking “a privilege that I have never taken for granted.” According to Variety , the actor addressed a crowd in Rome, saying, “It’s my passion to entertain you, and I will always fight for big theaters and that kind of experience for everyone.”

He also weighed in on Scarlett Johansson’s comments that he’s a dream costar, telling Entertainment Tonight on Monday, “I'd love to make a movie with her!" 

"She is enormously talented," he said. "So charismatic, versatile. She has great physical ability obviously."

As for other movies on his radar, Cruise told Access Hollywood he “can’t wait” for Harrison Ford ’s upcoming movie, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny . 

“I can’t wait to see it," he said, "And I will keep going to [Ford’s] movies. That guy, he’s so charismatic, he’s such a great actor and movie star. And a great guy.”

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One premieres in U.S. theaters July 12.

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Tom Cruise, in Bit Role, Nips Studio’s Top Gun

By Michael Cieply

• April 3, 2008

LOS ANGELES — Take that, Sumner Redstone.

At an industry screening Tuesday night of the forthcoming comedy “Tropic Thunder” from Paramount Pictures and its unit DreamWorks, Tom Cruise brought down the house with his surprise portrayal of a bald, hairy-chested, foulmouthed, dirty-dancing movie mogul of the kind who is only too happy to throw an actor to the wolves when his popularity cools.

The several hundred Hollywood agents, managers, publicists and reporters at the screening on the Paramount lot here couldn’t have missed the joke. In August 2006 Mr. Cruise — after spending many years at Paramount and appearing in some of its biggest hits, including “Top Gun” and the “Mission: Impossible” series — was sent packing by Mr. Redstone, the chairman of Viacom, the studio’s parent.

Two years later Mr. Cruise is back in a Paramount movie, playing a craggy ingrate in what is shaping up as one of the studio’s best prospects for the summer. The movie, a raunchfest directed by Ben Stiller, about a bunch of actors whose jungle war movie turns unexpectedly real, also stars Mr. Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black, Matthew McConaughey and Nick Nolte.

The humor may have been heightened by knowledge that Mr. Cruise and Mr. Redstone only last week kissed and made up over a very public lunch at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

Mr. Cruise, 45, has been a hunk (“Cocktail”), a heartthrob (“Far and Away”), an action hero (“Minority Report”) and a series of extraordinary ordinary guys (from “Taps” to “War of the Worlds”). He has also done some comic scenes. In 2002, for instance, there was a bit as Austin Powers, in “Austin Powers in Goldmember.”

But nothing on his résumé predicted the rapturous reaction he received Tuesday night. (Only a turn by Mr. Downey — who plays most of the movie in blackface, as a present-day white Australian trying to get inside the head of an African-American grunt during the Vietnam War — received as warm a reaction.)

Mr. Stiller, speaking before the screening, said he expected the movie to be rated R. The first few words out of Mr. Cruise’s mouth would guarantee that. As for his dance, that will be best described by the critics.

Representatives of Mr. Cruise, Mr. Stiller and Paramount declined on Wednesday to discuss the role.

Mr. Cruise’s latest appearance comes on the heels of a flop, “Lions for Lambs,” which was released by United Artists, a studio he now oversees with his longtime associate Paula Wagner. And the comedy’s August release will precede Mr. Cruise’s performance in “Valkyrie,” a fall film from United Artists, in which he plays a German officer who tries to assassinate Hitler.

Mr. Stiller, who played Mr. Cruise’s obsessive stunt double in a popular Web video (and who is expected to co-star with him in “Hardy Men”), first talked with Mr. Cruise, his friend, about taking a role more than a year ago, according to a person who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid conflict with the film’s promotion. Mr. Cruise chose the studio chief’s role, and went through four days of makeup tests in order to get it right.

The director had planned to keep Mr. Cruise’s uncredited performance a surprise. The studio has not included Mr. Cruise in the movie’s trailer and has declined to release any images of his character. But a photo of a mostly bald Mr. Cruise donning a fat suit popped up on the Web late last year.

In any case, the performance is likely to draw attention, since Paramount is weighing a plan in which it would build buzz with extensive screenings of “Tropic Thunder” before its Aug. 15 release, much as 20th Century Fox did in 2006 with “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.” At Tuesday’s screening Mr. Stiller told attendees that his new film was still in rough form. “If you have any suggestions, feel free to post them directly on the Internet,” he said.

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Tom Cruise is a dancing scream

Tom Cruise's fantastic cameo in the Ben Stiller movie Tropic Thunder has re-awakened my never-too-dormant fan worship of the great man. He plays Les Grossman, a horrific, fat, bald movie mogul with hairy forearms to match Hellboy's. It's one for the "Mr Hyde" section of this great actor's CV - by which I mean his roles in Magnolia (1999), Collateral (2004) and also, slightly lower in octane, Interview With The Vampire (1994) and Jerry Maguire (1996).

Les has to preside over a catastrophically over-budget Vietnam movie starring Stiller's fading action star Tugg Speedman, who is currently imprisoned for ransom in the jungle by a Laotian drug gang, whom the frazzled, delusional Tugg believes are improv method actors pretending to be Viet Cong. Les has a Max Bialystock-style epiphany: by letting the gang execute Tugg, he can collect a massive insurance payout and turn this certain flop into the most profitable film in Hollywood history.

To celebrate this scam, and to tempt Tugg's agent, played by Matthew McConaughey, into colluding in it, Cruise/Grossman goes into a quite extraordinary dance routine in his office to Flo Rida and Ludacris. He bumps, swivels, grinds and does a horrendously embarrassing "spanking" mime while addressing McConaughey in an excruciating faux urban blingspeak-whine as "pla-yaaaaah!" How weird to compare this routine with Tom Cruise's previous great solo dance , to Bob Seger's Old Time Rock And Roll, from Risky Business in 1983. They are recognisably the same Cruise moves, but sort of brutalised and artery-hardened in ways that aren't precisely intentional.

In fact, the wonder of Tom Cruise's dancing in Tropic Thunder is the insight that it gives us into the man himself. Clearly, he has not learned these moves from scratch in order to play the part. They are a variant, and perhaps not so very exaggerated a variant, of the dancing that he really does in private. What we are seeing is a good-natured reprise of the dancing that must have accompanied the various celebratory, euphoric moments of Cruise's glittering career - for real. He could well have been doing it front of a mirror and addressing "pla–yahhhh" to himself.

Dancing is something that an actor can't fake. One of the most interesting parts of a recent British movie called The Waiting Room , for example, was seeing the talented Ralf Little dance in a fantasy sequence: he really is a nifty mover. And Ricky Gervais's famous dance in The Office was hilarious partly because of the realisation that he must have worked on and perfected those moves, in real life, in ways that were not entirely ironic.

And of course there is Tom Cruise's look: fat, bald, ugly in the classic mogul style of Sam Goldwyn. Obviously Hollywood producers don't look like that any more. They are sleek, groomed, young. They look like Tom Cruise. They, in fact, are Tom Cruise - himself a well-known producer with clout. So when Tom Cruise satirises his alpha-dog schtick, well, it's not so far from the truth.

Take another look at the Les Grossman "dance" clip. Cruise's assistant is played by Bill Hader , a comedy up-and-comer from the Judd Apatow repertory stable. Tell me if you think that Hader's performance is ever-so-slightly nervous and tentative, not because he's in character, but because he is genuinely over-awed, and wary of being tempted into any career-ruining attempts to over-shadow Cruise, however fleetingly, or to be funny at Tom Cruise's expense.

Either way, some big laughs await you this weekend with Tropic Thunder. And surely there's a best supporting actor nomination to come for Mr Cruise …

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A young man must stop the Lord of Darkness from destroying daylight and marrying the woman he loves. A young man must stop the Lord of Darkness from destroying daylight and marrying the woman he loves. A young man must stop the Lord of Darkness from destroying daylight and marrying the woman he loves.

• Ridley Scott
• William Hjortsberg
• 366 User reviews
• 147 Critic reviews
• 30 Metascore
• 1 win & 12 nominations total

• Meg Mucklebones

• (as Ian Longmuir)
• (as Mike Crane)
• Dancing Black Dress

• Mummified Guard
• Faerie Firelight Dancer (Director's Cut)
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• Trivia Tom Cruise reportedly wasn't happy with the American cut of this movie and wouldn't talk about it for years because of it. He very much encouraged fans to go with the Director's Cut.
• Goofs Throughout the movie, the Unicorns have mismatched genders. It can clearly be seen when the animals rear up in the air. One example of this is when Brown Tom is guarding the "mare", and Lily trudges through the snow, frightening the horse.

Darkness : The dreams of youth are the regrets of maturity.

• Alternate versions There are at least four different versions of this picture: the original European release (94 min.), the American theatrical release (89 min.), a network TV version (94 min.) and a director's cut (113 min.)
• Connections Edited into Nostalgia Critic: Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties (2017)
• Soundtracks Is Your Love Strong Enough Written and Performed by Bryan Ferry Produced by Rhett Davies and Bryan Ferry Mixed by Bob Clearmountain

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• Feb 14, 2008
• What is Legend about?
• What are the differences between the Theatrical Version and the Director's Cut?
• April 18, 1986 (United States)
• United States
• United Kingdom
• Silver Springs - 5656 E. Silver Springs Boulevard, Ocala, Florida, USA (underwater sequences)
• Legend Production Company
• Embassy International Pictures
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• $24,500,000 (estimated)
• $15,502,112
• Apr 20, 1986
• $16,837,628

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• Runtime 1 hour 34 minutes

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Tom cruise ‘dumbfounded’ guests at victoria beckham’s 50th birthday bash with breakdancing and splits.

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It was a risky business. 

Tom Cruise, 61, reportedly stole the show with agile dance moves at Victoria Beckham’s 50th birthday bash, which happened in London on Saturday night. 

Cruise has reportedly been friends with Beckham and her husband, Inter Miami CF President David Beckham, 48, for two decades, and the “Mission: Impossible” star did a breakdance routine that wowed the A-list crowd. 

After a formal dinner at the private members club Oswald’s, over 100 guests hit the dance floor, where Cruise stunned guests.

There were no cameras allowed, but a source told the Daily Mail about the “Risky Business” star’s antics, “People were absolutely dumbfounded.” 

Other celeb guests included Gordon Ramsay, Eva Longoria, Salma Hayek, Jason Statham and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Guy Ritchie and all of the Beckham’s fellow former Spice Girls: Melanie “Mel B” Brown, Melanie “Mel C” Chisholm, Emma Bunton and Geri Halliwell.

Cruise wasn’t the only dance star of the night — since all of the former Spice Girls reunited and did an impromptu performance of their 1997 single “Stop.” 

They busted out their signature dance moves from the iconic music video , as seen in footage shared by David Beckham via Instagram on Saturday.

“I mean come on x,” the retired soccer star captioned his post, tagging all five of the ladies and adding a series of heart emojis.

Fans quickly took to the comments section to weigh in on the epic moment, writing things like, “Is this the teaser for the reunion? Cause I’m here for it,” “Tour WHEN,” “We are all UNWELL” and “Thank you @davidbeckham for doing the lord’s work!”

Victoria re-shared the clip to her own page, calling her birthday soiree the “best night” ever. “Happy Birthday to me!” the fashion designer added. “I love you all so much! #SpiceUpYourLife.”

Victoria dressed to impress in a mint-green sleeveless gown with sparkling silver and gold bracelets on each wrist.

She accessorized with crutches , for her broken foot — a workout injury from February. But she was all smiles celebrating with famous pals, David and their four kids, Brooklyn, 25, Romeo, 21, Cruz, 19, and Harper, 12.

Notably, Brooklyn’s wife, Nicola Peltz Beckham, 29, didn’t attend her mother-in-law’s party. 

She’s rumored to have a rocky relationship with Victoria, as they were allegedly feuding ahead of Peltz’s marriage to Brooklyn in April 2022.

“They can’t stand each other and don’t talk,” an insider close to the family previously told Page Six. “The build-up to the wedding was horrendous.”

Brooklyn has denied the rumors about an unhappy rapport between his wife and mom, telling Variety, “I’ve learned they’re always going to try to write stuff like that. They’re always going to try and put people down. But everyone gets along, which is good.” 

Victoria’s daughter-in-law took to her Instagram Story Saturday to share that she skipped out on the bash to spend time with her grandmother. 

“Happy Birthday to my beautiful MIL @victoriabeckham. I’m so sad I’m not there to celebrate you and hug you! Sending all my love from me and Naunni,” she said. 

Unfortunately, unlike the Spice Girls, party attendees have not posted footage of Cruise dancing, perhaps deciding that it’s too much of a risky business. 

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