Letter to Tom Cruise

So I'm watching one of these actor's roundtables of Oscar nominated super stars where the best of the best, the Cate Blanchetts and the Leonardo DiCaprios are asked about their craft, and I get to thinking about Tom Cruise. I think of Tom because of Brad Pitt, cause he's invited to these roundtables. Brad's invited cause he's getting nominated for oscars these days. Gets me thinking back to a time not that long ago when Tom and a young Brad Pitt seemed to be neck-and-neck fighting to be the pretty, most popular boy in Hollywood.

The game long since lost, Tom stuck on pretty, Brad fighting valiantly to be that much more - and thus has become - I think to myself, poor Tom Cruise. I'm gonna write the guy a letter. That should help.

Dear Tom Cruise,
You must watch Brad and DiCaprio and all these other handsome blokes that are now not just boat lengths but oceans ahead of you, and you must wonder why? Why why why? I was great in "Top Gun," I was something in "The Colour of Money," shit I even gained indie cred when I did "Magnolia;" so where's my oscar nod? Where's my love? Why don't they want to hear me talk about my process and my choices.

Well the answer, Mr. Cruise, is simple: you need simply quit that cult-like religion of yours. Quit bloody Scientology, Tom! I don't know, nor do I much care, if you're gay, but man, whatever it is, that cult of yours has gotten you to hide every aspect of your personality (assuming you still got one). You want to be an actor we care even a little about again? Then start doing the things great actors are paid to do. Yes, for Hollywood you gotta look good and eat right, and exercise obsessively, and you got that stuff down pat, but if you want some more of that Oscar stuff, you also gotta bare something resembling a soul, be a little vulnerable and brave the way you actually were when you were a good actor in the 80s. Do that and we may actually care about your performances again. Otherwise, you be going the way of the dodo bird.

Them's the harsh truths.

Best,
JM

PS This letter might be coming to you about a decade too late, but still ...