Tom Cruise is paying no mind to what others may think of him.
“I really have no idea,” Cruise, 64, told GQ in an interview published on Tuesday, September 15, when asked what he thinks is the “biggest misconception” about him. “I’m not sitting here thinking about that stuff. I never think about that. I’m more looking out. For me, I’m more in present and future.”
The Top Gun star continued, “I look back to evaluate how I can do things better. Where I’m going, ‘What worked and what didn’t work?’ I can look back at things in a joyful way. I’m looking at history. I’m looking at what worked previously.”
Cruise noted that he’s “not someone who lives in the past.”
“We’re now going back to older lenses, and we’re looking at how do we get that look and how do we get this today and where are we moving forward?” he added. “Do you know what I’m saying? … There’s that joy of creating something, in the accomplishment, and then there’s always a new dream. There’s always the bigger dream. And that’s the thing. That’s what I’ve always been interested in.”
Elsewhere in the rare interview, Cruise — who is known for doing his own extreme stunts in his action films, such as riding a motorcycle off a cliff in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning — revealed whether he fears death.
“Look, I think you could look at my life and go: I like standing on the edge of a cliff, physically and metaphorically. Meaning, I look at life as an adventure, and I always have, my whole life,” he shared. “I want to understand people. I want to understand life and cultures. We’re looking at life. I wonder: ‘Who are those people? How do they feel? Do they think the way I do? Do they laugh at the same thing? How do I connect with them?’ And I didn’t want to just be a tourist. I wanted to go make movies there because I also find you really get to know people when you create with them. Everyone has a different subjective reality of what they think about life, about people. And there is common ground in humanity, and I’m looking for that common ground.”
The Digger star continued, “Do I fear death? No. I don’t. It’s not like I’m not afraid. I don’t mind the feeling. I understand life has certainties and uncertainties. And in making movies and living life, what interests me is: Let’s move the uncertainties more into the certainties, but I want to create other uncertainties, so that we’re moving forward and it’s part of the adventure of it.”
At the same time, Cruise noted that he’s “not afraid to feel afraid.”
“I don’t know how else to say it,” he explained. “I’m not afraid to go, ‘OK, I know this is a leap and let’s take the jump. Let’s go.’ And I try to recognize things that I don’t know, and I don’t pretend to know things that I know and things that I don’t know. So that’s how I feel about it.”
