Tom Cruise won't retire from acting or give up eating popcorn: 'I will never stop'
Legendary actor sets ambitious 40-plus year plan to keep moviegoers entertained ... and munching on his favourite snack
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He may not be hanging off planes 40 years from now, but Tom Cruise is reassuring moviegoers he will never retire from acting.
Ahead of the release of his latest Mission: Impossible adventure, Cruise, 62, said he plans to act well past his 100th birthday.
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Two years ago, while promoting Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, Cruise told the Sydney Morning Herald that he was inspired by how Harrison Ford returned for a fifth outing as swashbuckling archeologist Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
“Harrison Ford is a legend, I hope to be still going, I’ve got 20 years to catch up with him,” Cruise said at the time. “I hope to keep making Mission: Impossible films until I’m his age.”
But speaking this week to The Hollywood Reporter in New York City, Cruise revealed he has revised his timeline.
“I (previously) said I’m going to make movies into my 80s,” Cruise told the outlet at the film’s premiere outside the Lincoln Center. “Actually, I’m going to make them into my 100s.”
He continued by promising he doesn’t have an off switch and he’ll never exit the stage. “I will never stop. I will never stop doing action, I will never stop doing drama, comedy films — I’m excited,” he continued.
In Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, Cruise returns as Impossible Mission Force Agent Ethan Hunt for the eighth — and presumably — final time. In keeping with the nearly 30-year-old franchise’s penchant to see its star performing death-defying onscreen stunts, Cruise hangs on for dear life as he hits zero G between the wings of a biplane as it flips and cavorts during a midair chase sequence that was shot in Africa.
Elsewhere in the new movie, Cruise pushes himself to the limits as he performs “an underwater sequence unlike any other.”
Looking back on the series while speaking to Postmedia in 2023, Cruise credited the Mission: Impossible films for allowing him to realize the childhood dreams he had of becoming an actor.
“I always wanted to go make movies and travel the world. I wanted to be in other cultures, and not just visit,” he said. “You get to know people by working with them … Every time there’s always something new … That’s what I love doing.”
During his Final Reckoning press tour, Entertainment Tonight asked Cruise if he was Hollywood’s “last movie star” and the Oscar-nominated actor downplayed the notion that there will be no one else like him.
“I don’t want to be,” Cruise said. “There’s so many other talented actors out there and I want to see them crush it.”
Cruise namechecked Sinners star Michael B. Jordan and the vampire thriller’s writer and director Ryan Coogler as two names he thinks are redefining what it means to be a “star.” Since its release last month, Sinners has become one of the biggest original horror movies at the box office in years.
“I’m a huge fan of his,” Cruise said, heaping praise on Jordan. “That film Sinners is amazing. We’re going to make a movie together.”
In a separate interview with PEOPLE, Cruise continued to gush over Jordan, who helped expand the Rocky cinematic universe with his Creed film series and also appeared in Coogler’s Black Panther movies.
“He’s dedicated to his brand. I really respect him. Respect Coogler, I love that film. I love the films that they make. It’s brilliant, you know, big cinema … I admire what they do and I love to see people do well in life,” Cruise said. “That is a thing that I work very hard to do … Filmmakers, actors — people know my door’s always open, so I’m very excited about what they’re creating and it’s always inspiring. It goes back and forth.”
Cruise has also found himself becoming an unintended popcorn crusader thanks to viral videos that have been shared to social media of him munching down on the movie snack.
In a video posted by user @seifwtf on X that has been viewed more than 4.8 million times, Cruise is seen eagerly tossing kernels into his mouth while at the British Film Institute earlier this month.
“I find that I like him even more now,” one person commented, while another added, “I have got to change the way I eat popcorn.”
Cruise spoke about the video during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show this week when Darius Butler said he had “never seen anybody eat popcorn like this.”
“Are you actually eating popcorn or are you full of s— right here, TC? I’ve got to know,” Butler asked.
“Man, I’m eating popcorn,” Cruise said with a laugh. “They know when I’m going to these movies that I’m watching, I’m eating popcorn.”
Cruise, who chatted with theatre employees in New York while snacking, also told one packed auditorium that he eats two buckets of popcorn when he goes to the movies.
“I normally eat two big buckets myself during a movie,” he said.
Another viral video with almost 20 million views showed Cruise walking into a theatre and “calling out a fan for finishing their popcorn before the movie starts.”
“You ate all your popcorn already,” Cruise quipped. “You gotta go get some more.”
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is now playing in theatres.
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