Tom Cruise Called “Terrifying” And “Scary” In Interview From 17 Years Ago That Is Now Going Viral
Seventeen years ago, “60 Minutes Australia” journalist Peter Overton interviewed movie star Tom Cruise. He flew to the United States for the interview which took place on the backlot at Universal Studios. It did not go the way he expected, but his producer described it as one of the “top five” interviews ever for the news show. According to Overton, the producer was clearly “thinking about the promos” for the interview.
Even before the interview started, Overton had a clue that this was not going to be a typical interview. Cruise practices the religion Scientology, and he invited Overton to a Scientology session. Overton attended the session on Scientology and met Cruise for the interview afterwards.
The interview started off normally enough. Cruise was on the show to promote the movie “War of the Worlds,” but as happens in interviews, Overton also asked him about his personal life. That’s when Overton discovered “that when he’s angry, the cool man of Hollywood can become downright icy.”
Overton asked Cruise about his ex-wife, Nicole Kidman. Overton asked, “Was Nicole the love of your life?” Cruise didn’t seem to know how to answer the question and didn’t want to answer the question. Cruise tried to change the subject to his future love life saying, “I plan on getting married again.” However, Overton brought the conversation back to Kidman. That’s when Cruise informed Overton, “You’re stepping over a line.” He added, “Put your manners back in.”
This clip from the 17-year-old interview has recently gone viral when it resurfaced on Twitter.
— robert franco, wandering ronin (@responsiblerob) May 27, 2022
— robert franco, wandering ronin (@responsiblerob) May 27, 2022
Some fans defended Cruise’s reaction to Overton’s questions, but others found his reaction “scary” and described it as “rage.”
Tom was right to lay down the law here. Also I cannot imagine having this man talk to me this way. I would start crying. He’s so scary.
— Will Sloan (@WillSloanEsq) May 27, 2022
Tom representing all of us short kings.
— Ethan Wojciechowski (@EthanWojciecho2) May 27, 2022
theres this whole part of it where when they got divorced after some traumatic shit and she left scientology and she was banished from seeing her children for years and he supported that so its not a crazy questions actually
— i was dog (@boxmodparty) May 28, 2022
very momentary flash of rage here pic.twitter.com/1hIOEa1zSk
— lobster20000 (@PunishedLobster) May 27, 2022
Eventually, the interview moved on after Cruise insisted he wasn’t going to answer questions about Kidman. The topic turned back to what Cruise was there to promote, the movie “War of the Worlds.” At the very end, Cruise even described the interview as “terrific.” You can watch this entire interview for yourself in the below.
Do you think Overton was “out of line” for asking Cruise about Kidman? Do you think Cruise overreacted? Why do you think he refused to answer questions about what his current relationship is like with Kidman?
