With more than 40 acting credits to his name and a worldwide box office take that's north of $12 billion, Tom Cruise is undeniably one of the biggest and most bankable movie stars of his or any generation. If anything has reaffirmed that, it's the phenomenally massive success that his legacy sequel, Top Gun: Maverick, achieved this past year. With the film becoming the actor's highest-grossing project with more than $1.4 billion at the global market, securing nearly-unanimous praise from critics and audiences, and scoring a Golden Globe nomination for Best Picture, Cruise is once again at the top of his game. Not bad for a 40-year veteran of the silver screen who just entered his sixth decade.
But despite all of Cruise's success in Hollywood, there's one particular feat that he has yet to conquer: the Academy Award. While he has always been a talented actor, consistently turning in powerhouse performances and displaying an impressive level of range and versatility in his craft, the Academy has only ever nominated him for the coveted golden statuette. It may be easy or tempting to take an actor for granted when he has an impressive list of box office hits and a decades-long A-level status in the industry. Such stardom can overshadow an audience's ability to remember that a particular performer still wields a great deal of power and influence in suspending disbelief, and Cruise is no exception.
Tom Cruise's Previous Oscar Nominations
His first nomination came in early 1990, when he was up for Best Actor for playing real-life Vietnam War veteran, Ron Kovic, in Oliver Stone's Born on the Fourth of July. With this role, he ascended to the next echelon of his career in tackling a heartbreaking depiction of Kovic's wartime experiences and struggles after sustaining a paralyzing injury. While the actor had flexed some dramatic muscle in previous films like The Color of Money and Rain Man, Stone's film would see Cruise tap new resources in his performative arsenal. In perhaps the most reverential bit of praise the actor received, Roger Ebert noted Cruise's ability to stretch and evolve when writing in his review of the film, "Nothing Cruise has done will prepare you for what he does in Born on the Fourth of July."
He scored his second Best Actor nomination seven years later with the hit comedy-drama, Jerry Maguire. In playing a witty and fast-talking sports agent, Cruise knocked one of his most memorable roles out of the park, bringing a breezy and relatable sense of humor to Cameron Crowe's film. He also proved once again that he had effective dramatic chops in convincingly exploring a man's crisis of conscience and existential struggle within a cutthroat industry. While he would yet again leave the Academy Award ceremony empty-handed, he nabbed his second Golden Globe Award for Jerry Maguire.
A few years later saw the release of Paul Thomas Anderson's epic drama, Magnolia. In an unusual move for Cruise, rather than headline a film, he joined an ensemble of talented performers and carved out his own compelling corner of the narrative with the character of Frank T.J. Mackey. A departure for the actor, Mackey is perhaps one of the most misogynistic, crass, and unlikeable characters to appear on-screen in modern cinema. At the same time, through Anderson's writing and Cruise's fearless performance, the complex character is utterly magnetic and one that audiences can empathize with. As with Born on the Fourth of July and Jerry Maguire, he won a Golden Globe (he has since returned his awards to the HFPA) for playing Mackey but failed to take home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
Tom Cruise's Stardom Makes Us Forget How Talented He Is
The aforementioned 40-plus films Cruise has starred in contain a number of great performances by the veteran actor. From Risky Business to A Few Good Men and Eyes Wide Shut to Collateral, he's taken on characters ranging from the boy next door to a cold-blooded killer. Although Top Gun catapulted him into the stratosphere as an international celebrity at age 24, Cruise has since remained largely grounded and versatile in seeking roles and material that challenge his abilities as an actor.
In 2022, however, thanks in no small part to the Mission Impossible franchise and its enviable quality of aging like a fine wine with each new installment, the superstar has arguably become more known to audiences as a first-rate action hero than the gifted actor he's always been. When he's not defying gravity, holding his breath for an ungodly amount of time, or otherwise engaging in activities that only a handful of the most daring adrenaline junkies would ever dream of, he consistently and earnestly reminds us that the action and stunts are icing on the cake. If audiences don't buy what he's selling as an actor, the sensational and white-knuckle nature of his world-saving escapades would amount to hollow thrills worthy of dismissal. While his daredevil persona is undoubtedly part of the reason that audiences continue showing up to his films in droves, it's ultimately the performative skills and instincts he possesses that keep them coming back for more.
Tom Cruise's Commanding Presence is Undeniable
Since starring as the naively innocent Joel Goodson in 1983's Risky Business, Cruise has always had a knack for captivating an audience and holding its attention without fail. His furrowed brow, intense gaze, and sincere delivery speak volumes about his commanding nature as an actor. Whether he's playing an Irish immigrant at the turn of the century, a tormented husband navigating the troubled waters of marital distrust, or a disaffected military commander learning the ways of the Samurai, his ethic is one of complete commitment and dedication in lending each character a level of authenticity and humanity. If there's one thing that can be said of Cruise for certain, it's that he doesn't take his craft, or the privilege of doing it professionally, for granted.
Another recurring testament to Cruise's power as an actor has been his ability to hold his own while sharing the screen with cinematic icons, particularly in his earlier days. In his mid-twenties, he more than kept up with Paul Newman in The Color of Money and Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man (both of whom secured Academy Awards for his performances), and would later spar with the likes of Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men and Gene Hackman in The Firm. Each of these performances and pairings, one can only assume, must have carried some amount of intimidation for Cruise and might've even given him pause over his confidence as an actor. It's not every day that a young performer on the rise has the opportunity to go head-to-head with some of the legends he grew up watching and idolizing. But if he ever harbored hesitancy or self-doubt, he certainly kept it to himself and delivered strong, nuanced performances time and time again.
Could 'Top Gun: Maverick' Bring Cruise His First Oscar?
After decades of plans for a followup to Top Gun, and the eventual sequel's release being delayed several times, it's safe to assume that no one thought Top Gun: Maverick would be as big of a hit as it's been. It wildly defied and exceeded expectations regarding commercial performance, as well as critical and public appreciation. It's a movie that many viewers simply didn't know they wanted. And just days ago, in yet another unexpected milestone of the film's remarkable journey, it received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Picture - Drama. While it's not unheard of for crowd-pleasing blockbusters to be recognized in such a way (Avatar: The Way of Water also secured the same nomination), there's something to be said for the awards circuit, which tends to focus on recognizing less mainstream filmmaking, to single out Tom Cruise's latest thrill ride.
Only time will tell whether the Academy will follow suit in bestowing Top Gun: Maverick, and its iconic star, nominations for the highest honor in the cinematic land. While it's a safe assumption that the film will very likely receive nods in technical categories (sound, visual effects, editing, cinematography), the notion of Cruise landing a nomination for Best Actor is less certain after his recent snubbing by the HFPA for the upcoming Golden Globes. Such a level of recognition, however, would be a fitting tribute to the actor and his long-awaited reprisal of a beloved character. His performance in the film, full of reverence for what came before and sensitively acknowledging the passage of time, greatly elevates Maverick's storytelling impact and imbues it with an emotional core not typically found in action-packed films. If the actor scoring his first Academy Award win for a film like Top Gun: Maverick seems like a long shot, it's worth remembering that prior to the film's release on May 27 of this year, the notion that it would go on to become one of the biggest films of all time was also far-fetched.