In the 80s and 90s he was a huge star but essentially he typecast himself somewhat in playing "cocky ambitious guy who has a mentor figure in his life who helps guide him in his craft/career while he encounters challenges and gets his comeuppance and learns to be humble and trust others and uses this to be successful" which plays out in Top Gun, Cocktails, Days of Thunder and can be seen in some aspects in movies like The Color of Money and Rain Man.
What I wonder is if Cruise might have missed out on some great roles during that period that wouldn't have typically been thought of for someone of his caliber since he was seen as "an All-American star"? Like I wonder what might have been if say Tom Cruise had done say Sean Penn's role in Colors or Casualties of War.
Or what if say Tom had done George Clooney's role in From Dusk Til Dawn or Brad Pitt's role in 12 Monkeys.
I guess overall I am wondering if folks think Cruise's success in itself sorta typecast him in the eyes of directors/studios so that he wasn't getting roles in movies by auteurs or so.
Watching Outpost (2008) tonight I wondered "who is that guy? he's in everything".
Turns out this person I've seen in 9 movies and 3 TV shows is Michael Smiley (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0806968). IMDB has him down for 111 acting credits.
He was the cyclist guy in Spaced. He lived with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in real life in the 90's.
Movies I've seen him in:
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Censor (2021)
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The Nun (2018)
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Rogue One (2016)
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Free Fire (2016)
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Black Sea (2014)
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The World's End (2013)
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Kill List (2011)
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Outpost (2008)
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Shaun of the Dead (2004)
TV shows:
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Luther
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Utopia
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Spaced
Then I realized he's also in a show on my watchlist - Wire in the Blood
Just finished Nightcrawler. Hated the ending. Does not make any sense what so ever that he have a successful future after the laws and the amount of suspension on him as a person.
Call me traditional or “normal” but honestly my favourite character of the film was good old bill Paxton I thought he was brilliant. I was hoping the whole time he would come back and get the police after him? I guess he died??
Really bad ending thinking about it more. Cartoonish. It’s a great film but with an ending that’s as twisted as Lou is.