Tom Cruise will be seen in two very different movies in the next year, and both roles required enormous bravery and physical strength. December will bring the next chapter in the Mission: Impossible series, entitled Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. Cruise found himself filming action sequences at the top of the world’s tallest building, among other stunts typical of the franchise.
While he was wrapping up that film, the action star found himself prepping for a very different role: that of rocker Stacee Jaxx in Adam Shankman’s film adaptation of Rock of Ages, due out in June of 2012.
“I was working on it when I was finishing ‘Mission’ and I was singing five hours a day and I was dancing five hours a day,” Cruise said. While the role may seem unexpected for the action star, he says that his physically demanding work on films like Mission: Impossible helped prepare him to step into Jaxx’s leather boots. “Adam said, ‘Look, we’re going to have a lot of fun,’ and we really did…. I did six months preparing for the movie, and all my stunt training and all of those years doing that, it helped me with the choreography.”
Of course, tackling his first musical alongside stars such as Diego Boneta, Julianne Hough, Russell Brand, Alec Baldwin, Mary J. Blige and Catherine Zeta-Jones didn’t come without a bit of stage fright. “They all have their risks,” Cruise laughed. Indeed, the Tony-winning musical includes hits by legends including Bon Jovi, Styx, Journey, and Pat Benatar.
Cruise’s family definitely provided the push to take the role in Rock of Ages. He says his daughter is a big fan of Shankman’s last musical adaptation, Hairspray. His wife, Katie Holmes, is a dance lover and encouraged Cruise. “I had started dancing because I was inspired by my wife. She kept saying, ‘You’ve got to do a musical sometime,'” Cruise said. “Kate’s a dancer, so she would say, ‘Let’s go to dance class,’ and she would take us and that’s how I kind of came up with the idea of Les Grossman doing hip-hop [in Tropic Thunder]. And then to take it to this level with this? It was really fun.”
Anyone who has seen Tropic Thunder, or even Risky Business, is surely anticipating seeing Cruise’s moves on the big screen once again.
via LA Times
Written by Jillian Sara Santella
