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CNN Saturday Morning News

Interview With Tom Cruise

Aired December 06, 2003 - 09:23   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


JIM MORET, CNN ANCHOR: His movies have made billions, and his romances have made headlines. Tom Cruise is one of the most hottest and most bankable stars in Hollywood. He has a new movie, "The Last Samurai." When I interviewed him recently, Cruise talked about the movie, the media, and matters of the heart.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM CRUISE, ACTOR: It's a character that is a man of few words, and I haven't played a character like this before.

The guys that I did the scenes with, they did stuff like that for, you know, trained their whole life, and I had to see, well, how far can I get to make it look like I have done this for the amount of time that I have, you know, in the picture? And it -- I couldn't even bend past here, you know, when I started out. (UNINTELLIGIBLE), you know, how am I going to lift these swords? What are we going to do? And those sequences we shot from the beginning to the end.

MORET: And there's no faking it.

CRUISE: No, we did it. We did it. It was about 25 pounds of muscle that I put on, you know, just to be able to sustain that kind of workday, and be able to move the swords and the armor in that capacity.

MORET: The risks, though, were real. I saw a headline in the London paper that said -- you'll laugh -- "Tom Cruise Nearly Beheaded," talking about one of these fight scenes. How, how...

CRUISE: I wasn't nearly beheaded. No, I wasn't nearly beheaded.

MORET: I have this December issue of "Marie Claire."

CRUISE: Yes.

MORET: You must be where you're the first man to ever be on the cover of this magazine. Did you know that?

CRUISE: Well, I hope it sells.

(CROSSTALK)

CRUISE: ... the first and the last, that's it.

MORET: And you're very open in this. Perhaps more so than I've seen you in the past. Are you feeling at a place in your life where you're more comfortable in your skin publicly?

CRUISE: I've always felt myself to be open. You know, in terms of -- but certainly there are things that I'm sharing now and discussing now that I think it's time. And it's appropriate. And I feel they need to be said. But I definitely feel more comfortable with myself, no question.

MORET: I turn on my computer this morning, headlines in Asia, headlines in London, quoting you talking to an American journalist, saying, "I love Nic (ph) and I always will." And you're very honest and open about things that you've often guarded in the past.

CRUISE: You know, the things that I said about Nic, I've always said that about Nic. I mean, even when things were starting with us, that was always -- that's always how I felt. I told her that, you know? All that was there.

You know, but it's -- and it's -- that doesn't change, you know -- that doesn't mean we're going to be back together, you know. But we'll be friends. I will always be her friend, always.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THE LAST SAMURAI")

CRUISE: Nathan Algren.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am honored to meet you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MORET: Come back around, finally, to "The Last Samurai" for a minute.

CRUISE: Sure.

MORET: You talk about the risk.

CRUISE: Yes.

MORET: What surprised you the most in making this film that you come away with and say, This is what I'm most proud of?

CRUISE: I'm proud of the humanity in the picture. I'm proud of definitely many aspects of the scope of the film that we even accomplished it, that they even let us make the movie.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cut, great. Great! Fabulous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MORET: It's really quite a film, "The Last Samurai," in theaters now. You can learn more about Tom Cruise when we profile him on CNN's "People in the News" that airs today at 11:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Eastern, 2:00 p.m. Pacific.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired December 6, 2003 - 09:23   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JIM MORET, CNN ANCHOR: His movies have made billions, and his romances have made headlines. Tom Cruise is one of the most hottest and most bankable stars in Hollywood. He has a new movie, "The Last Samurai." When I interviewed him recently, Cruise talked about the movie, the media, and matters of the heart.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM CRUISE, ACTOR: It's a character that is a man of few words, and I haven't played a character like this before.

The guys that I did the scenes with, they did stuff like that for, you know, trained their whole life, and I had to see, well, how far can I get to make it look like I have done this for the amount of time that I have, you know, in the picture? And it -- I couldn't even bend past here, you know, when I started out. (UNINTELLIGIBLE), you know, how am I going to lift these swords? What are we going to do? And those sequences we shot from the beginning to the end.

MORET: And there's no faking it.

CRUISE: No, we did it. We did it. It was about 25 pounds of muscle that I put on, you know, just to be able to sustain that kind of workday, and be able to move the swords and the armor in that capacity.

MORET: The risks, though, were real. I saw a headline in the London paper that said -- you'll laugh -- "Tom Cruise Nearly Beheaded," talking about one of these fight scenes. How, how...

CRUISE: I wasn't nearly beheaded. No, I wasn't nearly beheaded.

MORET: I have this December issue of "Marie Claire."

CRUISE: Yes.

MORET: You must be where you're the first man to ever be on the cover of this magazine. Did you know that?

CRUISE: Well, I hope it sells.

(CROSSTALK)

CRUISE: ... the first and the last, that's it.

MORET: And you're very open in this. Perhaps more so than I've seen you in the past. Are you feeling at a place in your life where you're more comfortable in your skin publicly?

CRUISE: I've always felt myself to be open. You know, in terms of -- but certainly there are things that I'm sharing now and discussing now that I think it's time. And it's appropriate. And I feel they need to be said. But I definitely feel more comfortable with myself, no question.

MORET: I turn on my computer this morning, headlines in Asia, headlines in London, quoting you talking to an American journalist, saying, "I love Nic (ph) and I always will." And you're very honest and open about things that you've often guarded in the past.

CRUISE: You know, the things that I said about Nic, I've always said that about Nic. I mean, even when things were starting with us, that was always -- that's always how I felt. I told her that, you know? All that was there.

You know, but it's -- and it's -- that doesn't change, you know -- that doesn't mean we're going to be back together, you know. But we'll be friends. I will always be her friend, always.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THE LAST SAMURAI")

CRUISE: Nathan Algren.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am honored to meet you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MORET: Come back around, finally, to "The Last Samurai" for a minute.

CRUISE: Sure.

MORET: You talk about the risk.

CRUISE: Yes.

MORET: What surprised you the most in making this film that you come away with and say, This is what I'm most proud of?

CRUISE: I'm proud of the humanity in the picture. I'm proud of definitely many aspects of the scope of the film that we even accomplished it, that they even let us make the movie.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cut, great. Great! Fabulous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MORET: It's really quite a film, "The Last Samurai," in theaters now. You can learn more about Tom Cruise when we profile him on CNN's "People in the News" that airs today at 11:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Eastern, 2:00 p.m. Pacific.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com