The Tom Cruise Role That Was Written With Tom Hanks in Mind Collider

The big picture

• Tom Cruise demonstrated a surprisingly experienced and thoughtful approach to his film choices in the 1990s, working with prestigious directors on risky projects.
• Cameron Crowe originally wrote the role of
  Jerry Maguire
  with Tom Hanks in the lead, but Hanks refused, giving Cruise the opportunity to show the vulnerability of his performance.
• Cruise’s comic vulnerability in films like
  Risky business
  And
  All good initiatives
  proved he could handle romantic roles, and
  Jerry Maguire
  showed his ability to deliver surprising and powerful moments in a romantic comedy setting.

Tom Cruise is most closely associated with the action genre these days due to the success of Top Gun And Impossible mission, but by the 1990s he seemed to have made it his goal to work with almost every major filmmaker on a prestigious project. Between Sydney PollackIt is The company, Rob ReinerIt is Some good men, Neil JordanIt is Interview with the VampireAnd Stanley KubrickIt is Eyes wide closed, Cruise has shown surprising discretion in the risky projects in which he has participated. Ironically, the role that earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor was Cameron CroweIt is Jerry Maguire, which was a mainstream success and audience favorite. The film gave Cruise some of the most endearing, iconic, and hilarious moments in his entire filmography, but it wasn’t a role that was originally written with him in mind.

Cameron Crowe wrote ‘Jerry Maguire’ for Tom Hanks

Crowe is one of the greatest directors of romantic comedies, as his films tend to go beyond simple audience pleasure to say something powerful about the nature of love and what it means to be in a relationship . Although he proved his skill in the genre with the 1989 coming-of-age comedy-drama Say anything and the overall project Simple, Jerry Maguire was arguably his most ambitious project to date. It was the type of film that relied on an established movie star to show vulnerability, and Crowe was aiming for which A-Lister he wanted in the role of the titular sports agent.

In 2017, Crowe said NBC Sports that the role “was originally written with Tom Hanks in mind,” and that he “had this wonderful conversation with Tom Hanks, and people were waiting in the next room for the answer.” Crowe found he was “high on the charisma of Tom Hanks’ personality.” However, Hanks was busy working on his directing effort. This thing you do!, and was unable to commit to Crowe’s project. Hanks would later joke that he “would like to think, though, that Tom Cruise owes me a dollar and I’m still waiting for the check.”

Cruise was very complimentary of Hanks, stating that “as a fan of his, I would have been very interested to see what he would have done with this character.” However, Cruise was keen to point out that he put considerable effort into ensuring the role could become his. Cruise said he “spent nine months with Cameron developing” Jerry’s characterization. Although the work Cruise puts into the physical stunts of his action films is obvious to anyone watching them, the effort he put into developing such a complex character was more subtle.

‘Jerry Maguire’ lets Tom Cruise get vulnerable

On paper, Hanks seemed like a more obvious choice for the role. Although he enjoyed new prestige thanks to his consecutive victories at the Academy Awards for best actor in Philadelphia And Forrest Gump, he was still basically a comedic actor who had shown his skills in the romantic comedy genre. Romantic comedies were very popular in the 90s, but his collaborations with Meg Ryan in the movies Joe against the volcano, You’ve got mail, And Insomnia in Seattle were among the best. However, Hanks’ refusal gave Cruise the opportunity to give an unusually vulnerable performance that pushed him as an actor.

Tom Cruise tends to take on dramatic roles and is not usually associated with comedy, but he has proven on several occasions that he is much funnier than some of his fans might expect. Aside from his iconic cameos in Thunder in the tropics And Austin Powers in GoldmemberCruise showed comic vulnerability in his early films Risky business And All good initiatives. In both films, he plays a teenager who bites off more than he can chew, and they end up making many ill-advised decisions in the name of what they perceive to be true love. These films showed that Cruise was willing to make himself the butt of a joke and lacked the ego he is sometimes associated with. However, these skills were put aside immediately afterwards, because Cruise focused on more serious films.

‘Jerry Maguire’ Is Proof Tom Cruise Should Make More Romantic Movies

This level of vulnerability is something that Hanks has used throughout his career and is why his romantic comedies with Ryan are so endearing to this day. It makes perfect sense that he would have been someone Crowe had in mind, but Cruise’s casting forced Mission: Impossible star to show this same romantic vulnerability who had been absent from his filmography since the end of the 1980s. It was a choice that ended up making Jerry Maguire more surprising. The audience would expect to see Hanks pour his heart out Renee Zellweger about how he feels, but seeing Cruise do it was a shock, making the “you complete me” moment even more powerful.

When Jerry lays out his ambitious mission statement regarding his intentions for his company, it feels like his breakthrough will be automatically accepted, so it’s hilarious when his speech is met with a collective shrug from his colleagues . However, see Cruise descend into madness as Jerry goes deeper while wandering (and even stealing a fish), resulting in one of the funniest moments in the entire film. These kinds of physical gags are something Hanks does all the time, but Cruise got to show a wacky side of his personality that he hadn’t had access to since his teenage roles.

Cruise continues to push the limits of his physicality as recently as 2023 Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, part one, and he will do the same thing for the next episode. However, Cruise is also 61 years old and can’t do action movies forever. Perhaps choosing to return to the romantic comedy genre for the first time since Jerry Maguire would be the best choice for Cruise to prove that, even after all these years, he is still one of the biggest movie stars in the world.

Jerry Maguire is available to rent on Prime Video in the United States

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