Tom Cruise Shuts Down a Political Question at a Mission: Impossible Press Event
Tom Cruise doesn’t have time for politics; he’s got a movie to sell. The movie star is currently on a worldwide publicity tour for his upcoming action-spy extravaganza, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, along with director Christopher McQuarrie and other cast members. While at a foreign press conference, a Korean reporter asked the panel about the recently announced 100% tariffs President Donald Trump plans to enact on American movies made in foreign countries. Those tariffs are designed to help save the American film industry, and they, unsurprisingly, have generated a wide range of opinions. (My own thoughts on the topic can be found here; essentially, I don’t know how it’ll work out, but I tend to think the threat of the tariffs, or at least the size of them, is a negotiating tactic which is already bearing fruit.) Typically, the Hollywood set would jump at the chance to insult President Trump, particularly on foreign soil so they can preen about how they’re “citizens of the world” or something (while never failing to find their way back to the Amber Waves of Grain, of course), and this time, they have a good excuse because the tariffs will directly affect their industry. But Tom Cruise did something different. Since the question was asked in Korean, a translator was necessary as a go-between to communicate with the panel; Cruise spoke to the translator after she delivered the question, and while his microphone doesn’t quite pick it up in the video, you can hear him say, “We’d rather answer questions about the movie, thank you.” You can see the clip below:
That was the perfect answer. Tom Cruise refused to politicize what is, if it’s anything like its predecessors, an apolitical movie (in terms of taking a side; I’m sure there are presidents and bureaucrats and international incidents and whatnot), which he would have done no matter how he answered the tariff question. Obviously, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is not about a tariff package that didn’t exist while it was filming, but when the actors, filmmakers, and/or studio start discussing politics while marketing for a movie, that movie is tainted with those politics, whether fairly or unfairly. This was a big problem with Snow White, to use a recent example, and was a big part of why producer Mark Platt was so angry with that film’s star, Rachel Zegler, according to his son. Cruise knew this because he’s an old hand at this – and, you know, not a complete idiot – and he expertly sidestepped it. This is also why Tom Cruise is a movie star and Rachel Zegler will never be one (aside from talent and likability); Cruise knows not to tie himself to divisive political stances, that whatever jolt of self-satisfaction it may give you in the moment is not worth alienating much of your audience, hurting not just the movie you’re currently selling but your career beyond that. It’s also unfair of entertainment journalists to do this to the actors and filmmakers, to effectively hijack a publicity tour and make it about their politics. I was surprised this turned out to be a Korean journalist and not an American one, which softens the blow a bit, but our hacks are not above it. Remember when one of them tried to make Quentin Tarantino apologize for not giving Margot Robbie enough dialogue in Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood?
Tarantino had the right response, as Tom Cruise did this time. (Sidebar: earlier in that conference, a different reporter suggested that Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood promoted violence against women and framed the female members of the Manson Family as victims just as much as Sharon Tate, the pregnant woman they murdered in real life, then tried to get Tarantino to explain himself to his moral superiors; these people denigrate one of the best films of the last decade – at least – while demanding you praise garbage like The Marvels, and I’m wondering why anyone should show them the slightest bit of deference.) Shut this down immediately and get the publicity tour back on track, talking about why people should see your new movie. I don’t think it’s an accident that Cruise is one of the driving forces behind making entertainment entertaining again; he kept the Mission: Impossible movies escapist popcorn fun while franchises like Star Wars and Marvel were embracing identity politics, and he put out a masculine, patriotic film like Top Gun: Maverick while the his peers called masculinity “toxic” and trashed their country like it was a drinking game. He’s one of those guys who make being a star seem effortless, but he clearly puts a lot of effort into maintaining his mystique and transferring that to his movies. Look at the way he sidestepped that question. He didn’t get angry or sneer; he did it with a smile, keeping the event light and welcoming, even when rebuking someone who was being rude. Tom Cruise is pure class, and much like Maverick in the movie, he has a lot to teach the next generation – if they’re willing to listen.
Let us know what you think of Tom Cruise dismissing a political question during a press conference in the comments!
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Comments (2)
Yeah, even if the tariffs work, they’ll go so far if California doesn’t stop strangling every industry in the state. I live in New York City, albeit a conservative section of it, and was at a barbecue with a bunch of lefty nuts (all the ones who lived here seemed to have found the same shindig), and they were all complaining about the crime and lack of safety, but none of them will stop voting for the party that forces it on us. And 1992-2012 proved it really is as simple as that; New York could be amazing again if these idiots would stop voting for Democrats.
Tom Cruise has always been a very stand up professional. It would be good to see him maybe get some kind of exemption or pass. He gave a great answer which directs focus on his movie.
No one says the quiet part out loud though, that Democrats ruined so many western cities, that it’s probably unsafe conditions at this point. People talk about a “toxic work environment,” but go figure that the very same people voted for conditions that made entire counties toxic and crime ridden and violent and derelict. We live in an age where you cannot state obvious things. Why won’t anyone just say this? That Democrat cities are such utter slums now, that doing anything productive may just end in ruin under their control?