Tom Cruise is rooting for the entertainment industry.
“I like to see people do well. I know that things don’t just happen. I know it’s not just luck. You have to create that luck. You have to will it into existence. I want you to know that I’m always rooting for you. I’m rooting for all of you,” he said while accepting the David O. Selznick Achievement Award during the 2023 PGA Awards on Saturday night
Sherry Lansing presented the award to Cruise, describing the star as “someone who I love, someone who I respect, and someone who I am in total awe of.” The annual Producers Guild honor is awarded for an extraordinary body of work in motion pictures. Past winners include Steven Spielberg, Barbara Broccoli and Mary Parent. Lansing was the executive on Cruise’s second movie Taps and was running Paramount Pictures when Cruise starred in and produced the first Mission: Impossible film.
“He used to sit in the projection booth where nobody could see him or hide in the back of the theaters so he could see the audience reactions,” remembered Lansing.
Cruise’s latest movie Top Gun: Maverick has earned nearly $1.5 billion at the global box office since its release and has received recognition from critics groups and awards organizations, including a best picture Oscar nomination. Earlier this month, during the Oscar nominees luncheon, where Cruise made a much-buzzed-about appearance, Spielberg praised Cruise, saying, “You saved Hollywood’s ass, and you might have saved theatrical distribution.”
“I’ve spent many hours in his home and at his table talking about movies,” said Cruise of Spielberg during his acceptance speech. “It was at his dinner table that I met Brian De Palma.” Cruise went on to say he stayed up all night watching all of De Palma’s movies and called the next day to offer him the directing job on the first Mission: Impossible movie.
In his speech, Cruise thanked other longtime collaborators like Christopher McQuarrie and Jerry Bruckheimer. The actor finished his speech by offering, “The better every studio does, the better every film does, the better we all do and the better it is for everyone. So, I look forward to seeing what you create in the future, and I’ll continue to do all I can to contribute and help this industry and this art form that I love.”
