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The Making of Les Grossman: An Oral History

The year was 2008. Tom Cruise was a national punch line. Then came ‘Tropic Thunder’ and the cameo role of a lifetime.

I n 2008, Tom Cruise needed to find a way to make people laugh. Hard. Probably at him. After two decades as a bona fide Hollywood sensation, the actor found himself in the midst of a crisis that seemed unimaginable. Over the past four years, he’d fired his publicist, who had told him to curb the Scientology talk, and made a fool of himself publicly, jumping on Oprah’s couch and lecturing Matt Lauer about psychiatry. Business had been better, too. On the heels of 2006’s Mission: Impossible III , which made nearly $150 million less than the franchise’s previous installment, Cruise’s longtime studio home, Paramount, severed ties. Company chairman Sumner Redstone delivered a public reprimand by way of a reason. “As much as we like him personally, we thought it was wrong to renew his deal,” Redstone told The Wall Street Journal . “His recent conduct has not been acceptable to Paramount.”

Grossman gave even fewer fucks than Cruise had seemingly given in the years leading up to the film — and watching Cruise mock his own industry finally felt like he was back in the know. Tropic Thunder was a sendup of filmmaking itself: A troupe of actors shooting a war movie wander into a remote jungle and end up in hostile territory. They believe the dangers mounting all around them are simply there in the service of acting. One of them, Tugg Speedman, played by Thunder ’s cowriter and director, Ben Stiller, is captured and tortured. Grossman is asked to ransom the action star, but refuses. Actors can drop dead. Business is king. That’s the message. In the end, however, the film within the film — a disaster by all accounts — is ironically rewarded for its merits with Oscars. Just as unbelievably, in real life, Cruise came away from Tropic Thunder nominated for a Golden Globe and ready, Les Grossman–style, to shake his ass all the way back to the bank.

Stiller: We had an outline and about half a script. I knew how it should end. Then we brought Etan on and got a full draft.

Stiller: I had been talking to Tom about being in the movie. He read the script and actually came up with the idea for the character.

Cornfeld: Tom read the script when there was no Les Grossman and said, “I think you need another villain other than just the 12-year-old drug king. What about some greedy pig studio executive who really represents the gross part of Hollywood?”

Stiller: His idea to show the studio head actually fixed a problem we had for a long time. We never cut back to the real world for any of the previous drafts. All the Grossman scenes totally fixed the plot holes.

Cornfeld: We did a draft that incorporated that character and Ben gave it to Tom. Then, the frequency of our discussions slowed down. Tom Cruise is a busy guy.

Cohen: The character spent a year being “Studio Head.” July 2003, he becomes Todd Berlinger. October 2003, Todd Green. This was an interesting draft, because here’s the first draft where we really see the guy who became the profane Les Grossman, screaming at Flaming Dragon that if they so much as sneeze on the craft services table, he will fuck them up. Then, a couple weeks later — Phillip Green. For the life of me, I can’t remember why.

Cornfeld: Ben decided he was going to play Speedman, and then he got a phone call from Tom, who said he just couldn’t get the script out of his mind. Tom asked, “What else is open?” And Ben said, “Well, we haven’t cast the Les Grossman role yet.” Tom was like, “I’d play that.”

Stiller: And he said he wanted to dance.

Cohen: I met Tom at the table reading. It’s not a surprise that he is who he is. A lot of actors hold back at table readings. Tom was the opposite. He worked insanely hard at making that character unique. You could tell that he’d never done anything like it before and was embracing it.

Hader: Tom Cruise didn’t know who I was and was trying to figure it out. I said, “Seth Rogen’s a friend of mine and he said he went to your house.” I did a Seth Rogen impersonation for two seconds, like “Tom Cruise is amazing! We rode motorcycles in his backyard!” And it was like I did a magic trick. Tom Cruise started clapping and going crazy and he went, “You do impressions and you’re on Saturday Night Live .” Meaning, I was briefed and I now know who you are.

Connie Grayson Criswell (lead hair-puncher): It was kind of a pain in the butt because we were punching with very curly human hair. Curly hair is very hard to punch because it has a mind of its own.

Burman:   When we needed a point of reference — I didn’t even see this happening at first — people would come to me, because I may be a few pounds over what I should be and I’m sort of bald on top and at the time had a sort of scruff going. And people kept looking at me to see how my hair grows and what the weight is like and how things sit on me. At one point I thought they were trying to turn Tom into me.

Cornfeld: Some magazine said the character was based on me because I’m like, you know, fat and bald, and I thought that was hysterical. The character was an amalgam of a lot of traits. Les isn’t really based on anybody. 1

AP Photo/Matt Sayles Brandon T. Jackson, Jack Black, Tom Cruise, Bill Hader, Ben Stiller, and Matthew McConaughey at the premiere of ‘Tropic Thunder’ in Los Angeles.

Criswell: I didn’t know what the hair was for initially. I’m not fazed by actors. It’s all about the hair work.

Cornfeld: We’re doing the makeup test and it’s the first time Tom’s in the Les Grossman outfit. He stops and says, “Maybe I should dance in this. You know, I haven’t danced in a movie in a long time.”

Stiller: Tom choreographed all his own moves. I remember watching him do this stuff and thinking this is so frigging funny.

Hader: I remember him standing off in a corner just working on his moves.

Cornfeld: Most directors, if an actor in that situation said, “Maybe I should dance,” suddenly, the script has additions to it. All of a sudden the secretary is saying, “Oh, Mr. Grossman, you’ve got to practice your dance routine for your daughter’s bat mitzvah,” or something like that. But Ben was like, “Yeah, that’s good. This guy does what he wants and when he’s happy, he dances.” He didn’t need any explanation beyond that.

Hader: I had a hard time keeping a straight face when he said, “A nutless monkey could do your job.” You notice when he says that I’m not looking at him. Every time I looked at him I’d start laughing.

Burke: One day we were in the makeup room and Tom was rehearsing his lines and they were so vulgar and crass. I was taken aback and I thought something had happened to him. He’s swearing and saying these horrible things like, “Fuck you, I’m gonna fuck you!” Oh my goodness. It was not his normal thing.

Hader: When I was like 5, my dad took me out to these rain towers in northern Tulsa, where I grew up. And he had me on his shoulders and he said, “They’re shooting a movie over there called The Outsiders .” They were shooting the rumble scene in the rain and I was like, “Oh my god! They’re shooting a movie over there!” I told Tom that and he goes, “I was there. You were there. And now we’re here. How awesome is that?”

Caefer:  With such a heavy makeup and the heavy workout he was getting, we really had to tend to the actor all the time because there are risks involved — dehydration — so we had to have water for him all the time.

Hader: Justin Theroux deserves a ton of credit for the Les Grossman character. Theroux was the one when I was around who was coming up with all these Grossman lines. “You shit the money bed” was just so good.

Stiller: We shot all Tom’s stuff in like three days.

Hader: They didn’t put him on any of the posters. And when I did press I didn’t want to talk about it because I just wanted it to be a surprise. 3

Caefer: At the end of the movie, people were seeing his name on the screen, and questioning, Who the heck was Tom Cruise? Which one was Tom Cruise?

Cohen: Les Grossman was so beloved that he appeared at the MTV Movie Awards. 4

Burke: Dancing with Jennifer Lopez.

Hader: I remember even getting phone calls, saying, “Hey, we’re maybe going to do a Les Grossman movie.” And I said, “Hey, that sounds great.” I think one was written, but I don’t know. 5

Cornfeld: So much of it is about availability. Hopefully something will happen because he’s such a great character.

Hader: At the premiere, Tom Cruise was like, “Hey, Bill, how’s it going, man?” And I got a little starstruck. Like, I’d never hung out with Tom Cruise before. I’d just been with Les.

Cornfeld: The whole thing was just a gift. Seeing it come together had this weird cosmic layer. Tom comes up with the idea of the character — the dance, having big hands — and he ends up playing the character. It’s just rare that these sorts of surprises end up working. But think about Tom Cruise’s body of work. Coppola, Scorsese, Oliver Stone, Paul Thomas Anderson. You know Tom Cruise doesn’t do things by accident.  

Playing a round of “Who’s Les Grossman, really?” was a popular guessing game around the time of the film’s release. Sumner Redstone and Harvey Weinstein were front-runners. In its review of the movie, the  New York Times called out  Tropic Thunder , which also employed blackface as a plot device, for perpetuating cartoonish Jewish stereotypes with the Grossman character. “What’s most notable about the film’s use of blackface,” wrote critic Manohla Dargis , “is how much softer it is compared with the rather more vulgar and far less loving exploitation of what you might call Jewface.”

Caefer was also charged with making last-minute cosmetic fixes to Cruise’s headpiece, which included punching individual hairs into a mat of silicone one-eighth of an inch thick and already glued to the actor’s head. “That was terrifying,” Caefer says. “I started punching hairs into this appliance and everybody was suddenly silent. Tom closed his eyes and for half an hour, nobody said anything until I was through.”

After photos of Cruise in a fat suit leaked during filming, Cruise’s lawyers reportedly threatened to take legal action against any publication that used them.

The 2010 MTV Movie Awards, two years after Tropic Thunder’s premiere.

Three days after the 2010 MTV Movie Awards, Entertainment Weekly and Nikki Finke’s Deadline reported that a Les Grossman movie would be made by Paramount — the same studio that had dropped Cruise four years earlier. Ben Stiller is quoted in the release as follows: “Les Grossman’s life story is an inspiring tale of the classic human struggle to achieve greatness against all odds. He has assured me he plans to quote, ‘F**king kill the sh*t out of this movie and make Citizen f**king Kane look like a piece of crap home movie by the time we are done.’ I am honored to be working with him.” A series of reports in 2012 quotes screenwriter Michael Bacall ( 21 Jump Street ) about drafting a Les Grossman script.

Filed Under: Tom Cruise Week , oral history , Tom Cruise , Tropic Thunder , Ben Stiller , Les Grossman , Sumner Redstone , paramount , Justin theroux , Etan Cohen , Bill Hader , Robert Downey Jr.

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Tom Cruise in ‘Tropic Thunder’: Not ‘retarded’

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Hollywood loves buddy pictures, so it’s kind of fun these day to see Ben Stiller doing some serious cozying up to Tom Cruise, who if you haven’t already heard 1,000 times does a funny turn as a bald studio chief in Stiller’s new Hollywood spoof ‘Tropic Thunder,’ which opens Wednesday. Stiller has had his pre-release problems in recent days, notably the threat of a nationwide boycott of the film by a coalition of disability groups, who are furious over what they’ve called the film’s open ridicule of the disabled.

In ‘Tropic Thunder,’ Stiller plays a narcissistic and not-so-bright action-movie actor named Tugg Speedman, who, in an attempt at becoming a serious actor, starred in a movie about a mentally disabled man called ‘Simple Jack’ -- which leads to an off-color discussion with Robert Downey Jr.’s character about the merits of going ‘full retard’ for a role in the pursuit of Oscar gold.

Stiller has claimed he’s not making fun of disabled people, only actors who’ll do anything to advance their careers. Few critics of the film are buying that line of argument. On the other hand, no one is complaining about Cruise’s over-the-top portrayal of a nutty studio executive, who would surely do anything to advance his career as well. Stiller, who has a long history of spoofing Cruise, talked to The Times’ indefatigable staff writer and man about town Chris Lee about how he got Cruise to do the part, whether it’s really based on Sumner Redstone and why Tom is such a ‘special’ person. Cruise could probably use a little extra love these days, especially after being replaced by Angelina Jolie in the Sony thriller ‘Edwin A. Salt.’ Give it a read:

Since the early spring, when the movie began screening around town, Hollywood’s chattering class has speculated that the Tom Cruise cameo in “Tropic Thunder” was meant to dis Sumner Redstone, the combative Viacom chairman who publicly took Cruise to task for his erratic behavior and ultimately kicked the iconic actor’s production company off the Paramount lot. But over coffee in Vancouver last month, “Tropic Thunder’s” writer-director-star Ben Stiller banished the notion that Cruise’s character was based on Redstone -– or on any other studio mogul. Stiller took pains to defend Cruise’s movie-making smarts and deconstructed the genesis of the “Top Gun” star’s foul-mouthed, hip-hop dancing, type-smashing role in “Tropic Thunder.” Q: Did you write the part of the studio boss with Tom Cruise in mind? A: I had shown him a draft before the character existed and he really responded. Then I was talking to him about doing the agent [a character played by Matthew McConaughey]. But at the same time, I had another issue I was trying to figure out. Three days later at 10 at night I get a phone call from Tom. He had this story idea that had nothing to do with his character. The guy cares about movies and story and has a great mind for that stuff. He said, “It’s really funny but where’s the studio head? It would be really funny to see a studio head in this.” For me, that triggered something.... So then Justin [Theroux] and I wrote up those scenes. For me, it made the movie work better. Tom didn’t have any input in the actual writing, so I didn’t know how he’d respond. But he was committed to developing this character. His only thought was he wanted to have big hands. Q: Why big hands? A: No idea. We were sitting there and he’s like, “I want the guy to have big hands.” We did four full-on makeup tests. I really wanted him to be bald. He has these piercing eyes and the Tom Cruise energy. I just thought it would be great to take away the strength of the Tom Cruise hairline. So we do a screen test and he says, “I just feel like I want to move.” So he starts doing this weird hip-hop dance and I was like, “Yeah! Keep doing that!” Full on dancing, no music. We went back and I was with the music supervisor George Drakoulias and he said, “You should put ‘Get Back,’ that Ludacris song.” So we put that up next to it and weirdly he was dancing in perfect rhythm to music that didn’t exist. I’m putting it on the DVD. Q: Where did you two meet? On the MTV spoof for “Mission: Impossible 2’? A: We crossed paths around time I was doing “The Ben Stiller Show.” I was doing a “Tom Crooz” impression on our show. From that point we stayed in touch. When they [Cruise and wife Katie Holmes] had the baby, we connected again through the kids and started hanging out a bit. We’ve become friends over the years. Q: He seems to trust you to let some of the air out of his image. A: I don’t think people give him enough credit for being as smart as he is and for making the choices he’s made over the years. If he trusts somebody creatively, he’ll go all the way. With the MTV thing he said, “I’m here. Tell me where you want to go with it. This is a new direction for me.” Q: Why do you think so few filmmakers have tapped the “funny Tom Cruise’? A: He’s such an iconic figure. Obviously, our culture has tapped into him as a lightning rod. You look at his work -- the guy’s done a great amount of good work over a long period of time. When you’re around for so long in such a big way, you stop being a real person to the audience. Which I think is the audience’s issue more than Tom’s. To his credit, he really wanted to be a part of this movie. He was willing to go for it. He can do comedy. He was having so much fun doing it, it’s just great to see that people get that and enjoy him in this. He’s a really special person.

Watch Stiller in action, making fun of that really special person:

The 8 Most Essential Tom Cruise Movie Moments, Ranked

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Ever since his Cocktail days in the early eighties, Tom Cruise has worked to establish himself as no less than an international sensation, recognized as much by name as the roles he plays. With decades-long participation in some of the most successful franchises of all time, along with his infamous allegiance to Scientology, Cruise's reputation might precede his actual abilities as an actor at times. But taking a look back on his filmography displays a great breadth of material, as well as within the different types of characters he's played over the years. Whether it's as an idealistic sports agent, special agent, or testy 18th century vampire, here are some of Cruise's most essential moments throughout his career, ranked.

8 The Phone Call - Tropic Thunder

There are many things that will forever make Tropic Thunder an iconic film, and Les Grossman's hand size is certainly one of them. In this scene that should be taught in all comedy writing courses, Cruise yells obscenities of Whiplash- level creativity at the Flaming Dragon terrorist gang, who have kidnapped one of their men. Cruise invokes the United Nations and several biologically-impossible acts in this unforgettable speech. His rage is completely unmatched and untethered, and it did a number in proving that Cruise doesn't take himself so seriously all the time. Les Grossman will live on in infamy, and maybe one day we will see his glorious, hairy return.

Related: 10 Motorcycles Tom Cruise Has Ridden in Movies, Explained

7 "Tame It!" - Magnolia

In Paul Thomas Anderson's three-hour tour-de-force, Cruise is barely recognizable, character-wise, as cocky motivational speaker Frank T.J. Mackie. Well before Cruise's comedic talent had been established via Tropic Thunder , here he does nothing less than shine as nothing less than the ridiculous. This legendary speech, whose full name could not be printed in good faith, serves as part of a seminar that Cruise gives "emasculated" men. Cruise's energy throughout the entire film is unparalleled, but it’s this moment in particular that should go down in history for its unabashed charisma. Despite how absurd Frank is, he also helped prove that Cruise had the chops for serious characters.

6 Hanging From a Plane - Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation

Yes, Cruise actually did hang from the side of a pane as it was taking off for the fifth installment of the Mission: Impossible series. The huge Airbus A400M went up to 1,000 feet at speeds of up to 100 knots. What elevates (no pun intended) the scene to even more legendary status is the fact that the crew only had two days to shoot it when they could use one of five A400M testbeds. It seems that Cruise's plane-hanging days are far from over , as we will see with the release of Dead Reckoning. There have been many words used to describe his image over the years, and "dangling" certainly should be one of them. This is just one of the many stunts that makes Cruise such a maverick actor and stuntman.

Related: These Movies Will Make You Second Guess Ever Traveling On a Plane

5 Darkstar Flight - Top Gun: Maverick

Despite its unwavering success , Top Gun: Maverick might not have ensconced itself into the culture as much as its predecessor did yet. However, in the years to come, it feels no less than inevitable that scenes like the Darkstar flight become one of the new ways Cruise is remembered by. The "Darkstar," in which Cruise perilously flies to Mach 10 speed, might not be a real plane, but it was modeled after Lockheed Martin's SR-72, one of the fastest planes in the world. This scene might be one of the most spine-tingling of Cruise's career, as the fear that he won't survive is more palpable than ever. It is also a great representation of Maverick’s unthwarted bravery, one of the few things that will never change about him.

4 "I Want the Truth!" - A Few Good Men

One of the greatest of the last thirty years, this scene epitomizes what it means to build up tension and suspense. A tete-a-tete between two of the biggest heavy hitters out there, Cruise definitely stands his own against Jack Nicholson as Lt. Kaffee, bringing Nicholson's Colonel to his near breaking point. Aaron Sorkin's rapid-fire dialogue style only adds to the energy and intensity of the scene, making this line delivery go down as true perfection. It's no wonder that this quote has made it to the top of many-a GOAT movie quote lists - Cruise both makes Nicholson stand out, but also truly stands on his own here.

3 Scaling A Building - Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

The word "building" doesn't seem to quite do this stunt justice. For Ghost Protocol , Cruise scaled the Burj Khalifa, which is only the tallest edifice in the world. He runs along, hangs onto, and crashes through a window in this awe-inspiring scene, which took months (and many architects, engineers, and stuntmen) to orchestrate. Cruise was equipped with a harness that was attached to different strategic points on the building, but that doesn't make the shot seem any less real or life-threatening. It's stunts like these that really do make us believe Cruise might be crazy - or committed - enough to put his life on the line, and this scene alone was enough to single-handedly revitalize the MI series.

2 "Show me the money!" - Jerry Maguire

"You had me at hello." "You complete me." Even for the most romantically inclined of viewers, there's no quote from Jerry Maguire more memorable than "Show me the money!" Cruise's perfect delivery of the line, over and over, is what really makes this scene go down as one of the greats. Of course, though, the scene would have been nowhere near as perfect without the presence of Cuba Gooding Jr., who won an Oscar nomination for his role as Rod. Cruise and Gooding's amped-up energy create a synergy rarely found in other films, and because of this, you can hear the real desperation in Cruise's voice. It feels like he might actually have something on the line here, and he has the sweat to show for it, too.

1 The Slide - Risky Business

For this iconic scene, Cruise was simply directed to "dance to rock music." We ended up with history being made and fodder for decades of Halloween costumes. It's hard to identify what element, specifically, makes this scene so hard to forget the moment you watch it; perhaps the main element is that it just feels so natural, like we are peaking in on a friend of ours in a moment that we will never let them live down. Cruise admitted that he adlibbed the entire routine - "That is something that I did as a kid at home," he said about dancing. Despite whatever danger he's put himself in on the sides of buildings, Risky Business wins for possessing one of the most truly memorable and iconic Tom Cruise moments.

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The Truth About Tom Cruise's Character In 'Tropic Thunder'

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Love him or loathe him, there's no denying that Tom Cruise basically stole Tropic Thunder. While the movie was filled with controversy, such as Robert Downey Jr.'s character's acting choices , the 2008 film remains beloved. In the film, Tom Cruise played a vile Hollywood mogul named Les Grossman. Given Tom's incredible filmography , it makes sense that he brought this character to life so well. But given Tom's recent set outburst as well as his not-so-clean reputation among some in Hollywood perhaps his casting was even more calculated. Either way, Tom Cruise absolutely knocked this role out of the park. Thanks to a fantastic article by Grantland , we now know how he was able to do this...

Tom Was Supposed To Play Ben's Role Until He Gave A Very Specific Script Note

Tom Cruise needed to repair his image in 2007. Years of conflict with marriages, jumping on couches, and squabbles with the studio making his Mission Impossible movies put him in a bad light. Ultimately, Tropic Thunder was the film that helped (momentarily) rehabilitate his image. But Tom wasn't supposed to play Les Grossman, the vicious studio executive who clearly believed actors were disposable. Actually, Tom was supposed to play the leading role that Ben Stiller ended up taking. It made sense that Ben wasn't initially interested in the lead role. After all, he was already directing it and writing it with Justin Theroux and Etan Cohen.

"Justin Theroux and I had been working on the script on and off for eight years," Ben Stiller said to Grantland. "We had an outline and about half a script. I knew how it should end. Then we brought Etan on and got a full draft."

When Etan Cohen came on in 2002, he basically came up with the idea that would lead Tom Cruise to essentially create Les Grossman.

Related: Amidst The Tom Cruise Controversy, Katie Holmes Seems Unbothered And Is Focusing On Christmas

"We were still figuring out why the actors would get abandoned and no one would notice that all these stars were gone," Etan Cohen said. "So I had written this throwaway thing at the side of the document that said: 'Maybe the studio has an insurance policy on production. When the director dies they recoup all their expenses, so the studio doesn’t care about the actors.' Then we totally went away from that for years."

By that time, Tom Cruise had already read the script and claimed that there was a need for another villain. In fact, he even stated that it could use a greedy studio exec who 'represents the gross part of Hollywood'.

"His idea to show the studio head actually fixed a problem we had for a long time. We never cut back to the real world for any of the previous drafts. All the Grossman scenes totally fixed the plot holes" Ben Stiller claimed.

Related: Tom Cruise Trolled For 'Social Distancing From His Daughter' After Fiery Audio Leaks

Soon after, a new draft was written and Ben gave the role of the studio exec to Tom, who couldn't take it due to scheduling conflicts. But there was no name for the character at first. In fact, it took an entire year for 'Les Grossman' to officially be created.

"Ben decided he was going to play Speedman, and then he got a phone call from Tom, who said he just couldn’t get the script out of his mind. Tom asked, 'What else is open?' And Ben said, 'Well, we haven’t cast the Les Grossman role yet.' Tom was like, 'I’d play that,'" producer Stuart Cornfeld said.

Les Grossman's Look Was Half The Performance

While Tom brought a certain amount of energy to the role, his hair, make-up, and prosthetics were really what made the performance memorable. After all, Tom was barely recognizable.

"I was Tom’s go-to makeup person from Interview With the Vampire on. I did a lot of big, iconic looks for him," makeup designer Michèle Burke said. "I got a text saying, 'Tom wants to have hairy arms.' And I was thinking, Oh, OK, we can get hairy arms. Then they were like, 'We want him to have a hairy chest.' Then suddenly it was like he’s going to have big hands, and I’m sitting there thinking, This is getting bigger than I expected. Then they started sending me pictures of other people who looked a bit like this. You know, with the gold jewelry, the hairy chest. I thought, OK, now I’m beginning to get the picture, this is full-on."

Then, of course, there was the fat suit which was a bunch of custom pads made out of foam and beading from the inside of a pillow. This beading accurately mimicked the jiggle that human fat makes when it moves; something that was vital for the dance number...

All About Tom Cruise Dancing

"We’re doing the makeup test and it’s the first time Tom’s in the Les Grossman outfit. He stops and says, 'Maybe I should dance in this. You know, I haven’t danced in a movie in a long time,'" producer Stuart Cornfeld said.

The Mission Impossible and Eye Wide Shut star ended up choreographing all of his own dance moves which just made everyone on the set burst out laughing.

"I remember him standing off in a corner just working on his moves," co-star Bill Hader explained.

The outrageous costume, hair, and make-up, the hilarious lines (mostly written by Justin Theroux), as well as the performance and energy that Tom Cruise brought to the role, ended up creating a truly memorable character.

Next: Why Did Tom Cruise Agree To A Cameo In 'Austin Powers'?

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Tropic Thunder 2008

Les Grossman: [incensed at Flaming Dragon's demands] Okay Flaming Dragon, f***face. First, take a big step back... and literally f*** your own face! I don't know what kind of pan-Pacific bullshit power play you're trying to pull here, but Asia, Jack, is my territory. So whatever you're thinking, you'd better think again! Otherwise I'm gonna have to head down there and I will rain down an ungodly f***ing firestorm upon you! You're gonna have to call the f***ing United Nations and get a f***ing binding resolution to keep me from f***ing destroying you. I am talking scorched-earth, motherf***er! I will massacre you! I will f*** you up! [hangs up; to assistant] Can you find out who that was?

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Apparently Tom Cruise Is The One Who Invented Les Grossman

Tom Cruise has played many iconic roles over the course of his career - from the still-active Ethan Hunt in the Mission: Impossible films, to Frank T.J. Mackey in Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia , to Ron Kovic in Born on the Fourth of July - but ranking right up towards the top is his supporting turn as studio executive Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder . It's ridiculous, crude, and unlike anything we've seen from the movie star before - but what may surprise you is that the character was actually Cruise's idea to include.

Diving into the making of Tropic Thunder , Grantland has published an oral history of how the Les Grossman role came to exist - and while there are no quotes from Cruise, the story does feature input from Ben Stiller , screenwriter Etan Cohen, co-star Bill Hader , and many more. As the story goes, the film was in development for a number of years in a form similar to what's available on Blu-ray and DVD today, but it was after Tom Cruise had a chance to read it that the entire game was changed. The star was being considered for the lead role in the movie - Tugg Speedman -as this was how Stiller got the screenplay into Cruise's hands. As it existed at the time, the movie only had one real villain - the 12-year-old drug king. After reading the script, it was Cruise who, according to producer Stuart Cornfield, came up with the idea of a "greedy pig studio executive who really represents the gross part of Hollywood."

As it turns out, the idea for this character was a total revelation for Ben Stiller. He notes in the article that the idea actually turned out to be the perfect piece that allowed the rest of Tropic Thunder 's dominoes to fall. Said the actor/director,

His idea to show the studio head actually fixed a problem we had for a long time. We never cut back to the real world for any of the previous drafts. All the Grossman scenes totally fixed the plot holes.

But while Tom Cruise may have added significant creative contributions to the Tropic Thunder script, apparently it still wasn't a slam dunk getting him to sign on as Les Grossman. According to the article, conversations slowed down after Ben Stiller first gave Tom Cruise a copy of the revised draft, as the Mission: Impossible actor started to get busier. Eventually Stiller decided that he wanted to play the lead for himself, but it was at this time that Cruise finally got in contact with him. Said Cornfield,

[Ben Stiller] got a phone call from Tom, who said he just couldn’t get the script out of his mind. Tom asked, 'What else is open?' And Ben said, 'Well, we haven’t cast the Les Grossman role yet.' Tom was like, 'I’d play that.'

Of course, the rest is cinema history. Though he was nearly unrecognizable under all of his makeup, Tom Cruise wound up stealing every Tropic Thunder scene he was in, and only made the movie that much better.

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15 years ago, Tom Cruise revived his career with an uncredited role in Tropic Thunder

After a string of controversies and a split from longtime studio paramount, cruise was slipping out of favour with hollywood. that was, until he suggested the character of a diet coke-guzzling terror of a movie producer for his friend ben stiller’s new film, article bookmarked.

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Fifteen years ago, Tom Cruise took on a role that has since been credited for reviving his career. Now, with the latest Mission: Impossible film just released and Cruise enjoying his time as one of the top 10 highest-grossing lead actors of all time, it’s hard to imagine. But back then, he was falling out of favour due to a spate of controversial public behaviour.

In 2006, Cruise was a PR nightmare dominating headlines for all the wrong reasons. The previous year, he’d caused uproar with his notorious couch-jumping stunt during an interview with Oprah. He was supposed to be promoting Steven Spielberg ’s movie War of the Worlds , but instead decided to declare his love for fellow actor Katie Holmes , in the most over-enthusiastic manner possible.

The clip was viewed millions of times around the world thanks to a new website called YouTube, sparking a reported feud with Spielberg, who apparently believed that Cruise’s behaviour had damaged War of the Worlds ’ success at the box office. (Cruise would later tell Oprah in a 2015 interview that the moment was “real” for him and he was unsure if he’d take it back.)

That same year, Cruise was heavily criticised for his remarks about Brooke Shields, where he accused her of spreading “irresponsible misinformation” about antidepressants. Shields, who struggled with conception, revealed in her book Down Came the Rain: My Journey Through Postpartum Depression, that she’d taken medication to help treat her condition.

In a heated discussion on The Today Show, Cruise told then-host Matt Lauer that Shields “didn’t understand the history of psychiatry”, and went so far as to brand her “dangerous”. Shields then wrote a New York Times op-ed, in which she suggested Cruise “stick to fighting aliens”. He was also criticised by medical experts who warned that he risked increasing the stigma surrounding mental illness.

Shields said that Cruise apologised for his remarks in person, and that she’d been impressed by his apology, during an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. “He apologised for bringing me into the whole thing and for everything that happened,” she said.

“And through it all, I was so impressed with how heartfelt it was. And I didn't feel at any time that I had to defend myself, nor did I feel that he was trying to convince me of anything other than the fact that he was deeply sorry. And I accepted it.”

By 2006, Cruise was rapidly falling out of favour with Hollywood, even as he was ranked as the world’s most powerful celebrity by Forbes . His influence and box-office success were indisputable, of course, but industry figures – and the public – appeared to be growing tired of his highly publicised antics.

Evidence of this emerged when Paramount Studios cut ties with Cruise after a 14-year relationship, and Sumner Redstone, then-chairman of the studio’s parent company, Viacom, cited the actor’s public behaviour as one of the reasons behind the decision.

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“It’s nothing to do with his acting ability, he’s a terrific actor,” Redstone said at the time. “But we don’t think that someone who effectuates creative suicide and costs the company revenue should be on the lot.”

This shocking upset, which landed after years of success since Cruise first starred in Top Gun in 1986, caused many Hollywood critics to wonder if this was the end of his career. That was, until 2008, when Cruise showed up in a cameo role in his friend Ben Stiller ’s box office hit, Tropic Thunder – about a cast of prima donna actors shooting a movie in Vietnam – as the balding, Diet Coke-guzzling, expletive-uttering movie executive Les Grossman.

Opening up about Cruise’s role in an Esquire interview, director Stiller revealed that it was actually his friend’s idea to play Les. “Tom Cruise had the idea to play Les Grossman in the movie,” Stiller says. “That part did not exist. He said, ‘Well, there’s no studio executive and that would be really fun to be that guy.’ And he had this whole idea of what the guy should look like. It was his idea to dance. And I remember when we did a makeup test, someone handed him a Diet Coke and then he just started moving.”

Cruise certainly committed to the role. In a 2019 interview with Conan O’Brien, he recalled that his two stipulations for the role were that he wanted “fat hands”, and he wanted to dance. Wearing a fat suit, prosthetic hands and a bald cap, he was virtually unrecognisable as the suave Hollywood star the world knew, dancing to Ludacris’s “Get Back” one moment, screaming at a film crew the next (OK, the latter sounds more familiar after his notorious Mission Impossible diatribe in 2020 ). For many watching Tropic Thunder at the cinema, it wasn’t apparent that Cruise was behind the character until the end credits began to roll.

The film itself was controversial, not least for Robert Downey Jr’s performance, which involved wearing blackface to play method-loving Australian actor, Kirk Lazarus. Cruise’s character was also scrutinised: the New York Times noted how Grossman was “heavily and heavy-handedly coded as Jewish…the character is murderous, repellent and fascinating, a grotesque from his swollen fingers to the heavy gold dollar sign nestled on his yeti-furred chest”.

Yet audiences adored Cruise in the movie, and in the years since, his performance in Tropic Thunde r has been widely credited for “resurrecting” his career, along with proving he could do comedy, as well as action. Since then, fans have been begging Cruise to reprise the role, and it seems they might actually get their wish. Last year, in a Deadline report about him and his regular collaborator Christopher McQuarrie, it was claimed that the duo are “fixated” on the character of Les Grossman, and are working out how best to bring him back.

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If Tom Cruise's publicized  Mission: Impossible   demands prove anything, it's that his bizarre   Tropic Thunder role as Les Grossman is even funnier than before. Cruise's Les Grossman is the studio executive for  Tropic Thunder' s eponymous project who is characterized by his explosive outbursts while on the phone. By also donning a fat suit, fake large hands, bald cap, and extra-hairy chest, Cruise's Grossman has been compared to studio producers like Stuart Cornfeld and Scott Rudin. However ,  Tropic Thunder  star and director Ben Stiller stated that Tom Cruise made Les Grossman up entirely (via Esquire ). Cruise noted that the script needed a studio representative, so working with Stiller, he created Grossman.

Like Grossman, Tom Cruise has a reputation for being demanding and hot-headed. The  Mission: Impossible  movies depend on Cruise , and because of that, he holds a lot of sway over the franchise and has taken advantage of this. Paramount revealed plans to make  Mission: Impossible 7 available to stream only 45 days after its theatrical release, but Cruise has been fighting with the studio to keep it at the 90-day industry standard. It was also revealed that Cruise blocked Paramount's efforts to create a  Mission: Impossible  television show. The audacity of his demands marks his influence over  Mission: Impossible, considering that he's the franchise's lead and was a producer on all six  M:I  installments.

Related:  Why Ben Stiller Wanted To Cut Tom Cruise's Tropic Thunder Dance

Cruise has long been known to be demanding to work with, and his actions regarding  Mission: Impossible' s seventh installment and blocked TV series only add to the list of stories regarding his power over the franchise. Even if  Mission: Impossible 8  will be Cruise's last for the franchise, his influence over it will remain strong due to the studio giving into his bold demands. In relation to his Les Grossman character, that role becomes especially meta when considering how much Tom Cruise acts like Grossman in real life, particularly toward the  Mission: Impossible  franchise. It's a case of life imitating art, underscored even further by his recent demands.

Because of his heavy prosthetic makeup, audiences were shocked to discover that it was Tom Cruise playing Les Grossman, which is ironic considering how much Cruise has sometimes exemplified Grossman's more explosive characteristics. In 2020, Cruise went on a highly publicized tirade against the crew members of  Mission: Impossible 7  for disregarding the set's COVID-19 protocols. In Grossman-esque fashion, Cruise threatened to have them fired.  Mission: Impossible 7,  with its more dangerous stunts  and pandemic obstacles, put even more pressure on the production. In addition,  Mission: Impossible 7' s budget of $290 million is higher than any  M:I  movie budget to date, adding the further need for the installment to succeed. Nonetheless, Cruise's demands for the movie play no small part in amplifying his vociferous reputation.

Cruise's  Tropic Thunder   character adds a necessary component to the movie's satirical Hollywood portrayal. It's no surprise that he suggested the character himself to Stiller, especially when Tom Cruise exemplifies a similarly uproarious approach to conflict.  Mission: Impossible   is a franchise that Tom Cruise holds a lot of control and influence over. Because his demands for the franchise are bold, and at times even combative, he is therefore in some ways a real-life representation of Les Grossman.

Next:  Tom Cruise Already Spoiled Part of Ethan Hunt’s Mission: Impossible Ending

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How tom cruise's bizarre 'tropic thunder' character was created — and why we may see him again.

(Paramount) Tom Cruise as Les Grossman in "Tropic Thunder."

One of the highlights of the 2008 Ben Stiller comedy “Tropic Thunder” is Les Grossman, the venom-spewing, Diet Coke-drinking studio head who doesn’t care that the lead actor (Stiller) in his multimillion-dollar movie has been kidnapped in the jungles of Vietnam.

The reason why the character is so memorable is simple: He's played by Tom Cruise.

Well, it was probably the best time for Cruise to do something that’s not in his wheelhouse. Back then, Cruise was still getting over the box-office disaster of “Mission: Impossible 3,” and his public statements about Scientology caused Viacom chair Sumner Redstone to tell a reporter , “We don’t think that someone who effectuates creative suicide and costs the company revenue should be on the lot.”

Thankfully, Cruise's friend Ben Stiller wanted him to be in “Thunder.” And as the movie’s coscreenwriter Justin Theroux tells it, they wanted Cruise to have a larger part.

“We were talking to Tom about maybe doing Ben’s part — we wanted him in the movie,” Theroux told Business Insider while doing press for “Zoolander 2,” which he also cowrote. “We thought it would be a real coup to get him in the movie.”

But Cruise pushed for the minor studio-head role, so Theroux went to work on the character.

(Jeff Spicer/Getty) Justin Theroux.

“I went back and started working on it and sketching it out and basically creating the most vile character I could create,” Theroux revealed. “And there was a moment of going, ‘Oh, s--t, eventually Tom is going to see these pages and he’s going to be like, 'What the hell are you doing?’”

But that was far from the case. In fact, Cruise encouraged Theroux and Stiller to make the character even more offensive.

And when it came to the Les Grossman look — balding and overweight — Cruise suggested another memorable feature.

“He wanted these prosthetic hands — big, chubby hands,” Theroux said of Cruise's pointer.

In many ways. the Les Grossman character made Cruise hip again to an audience that was starting to write him off.

Since the release of “Tropic Thunder,” many have pushed for a spinoff that focuses on Grossman.

Theroux, for one, is game, and it seems like it might be tentatively in the works.

“We’ve talked about it,” Theroux said. “But it’s one of those things where we go, we don’t want to jam anything, we just want to make sure the tone is right and it would be the right story.”

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How Tom Cruise clawed his way back to the top with the weirdest character of his career

Tom cruise was battling professional and personal setbacks in the mid-2000s, when he conceived, from scratch, the character that would take his career to the next level..

Tom Cruise’s stardom , which he has sustained for over four extraordinary decades, was further cemented some weeks ago with the release of Top Gun: Maverick. The film proved that Cruise is still a big draw at the box office, especially when he’s playing iconic characters in large-scale spectacles. Maverick has since become the year’s biggest hit, grossing over $1 billion worldwide and setting the stage for the next two years in Cruise’s career, with back-to-back Mission: Impossible films up for release.

From the outside, it might look like things have never been this good for Cruise, at least professionally speaking. But this is a position that he has had to claw his way towards. It wasn’t always smooth sailing for Cruise, but thanks to a carefully crafted last decade–both professionally and personally–the actor has managed to hit greater heights than probably any 60-year-old star ever.

On his birthday today, here’s looking back at the exact moment thing started turning around for him. In the mid-2000s, Cruise experienced the worst PR crisis of his life. His antics on Oprah’s couch made him the butt of all jokes before social media was even a thing. It was around the same time that Cruise said publicly that Brooke Shields’ use of antidepressants to battle postpartum depression was ‘irresponsible’. And then there was the leaked video in which he spoke passionately (and to regular folks, rather menacingly) about Scientology. His affliation with the Church of Scientology seemed to be the bedrock for virtually every controversy he found himself involved in, and certainly, this is something that has always proven to be a thorn in his side.

In desperate need of a career reinvention and after two full years without a proper hit–the third Mission: Impossible underperformed–Cruise bounced back with a role that would not only recontextualise him in popular culture as someone who was willing to poke fun at himself, but also an actor first and a star second. In 2008, Cruise appeared in a surprise extended cameo in director Ben Stiller’s war/film industry satire Tropic Thunder . He played the fat, balding studio head Les Grossman (a character that may or may not have been modelled after Harvey Weinstein) and earned himself a place in the audience’s good books, and also a nomination at the Golden Globes.

The idea of Grossman, who pops in regularly to scream obscenities at people on the phone and dance to pop music while sipping soda, was entirely Cruise’s, Stiller told Esquire some years ago. “That part did not exist. He said, ‘Well, there’s no studio executive and that would be really fun to be that guy. And he had this whole idea of what the guy should look like. It was his idea to dance. And I remember when we did a makeup test, someone handed him a Diet Coke and then he just started moving,” he said.

Cruise had said something similar a couple of years before that. “I read the script, and he had all of the characters, but the studio wasn’t there,” he told BBC Radio 1 in 2017. “There was a structural compression missing down on those characters, you know, that keeps the pressure on these guys that really drives the story. I was like, ‘You need the studio.’ So he came back, like a few weeks later, and I started reading. I read this character and I went, ‘Okay.’ I said, ‘This is fun,’ I said, ‘Do you mind Ben? I want to play this character. I said, ‘I want to have fat hands, and I’m gonna dance.’ And he looked at me, he was like, ‘What?’ …”

Cruise continued, “He said, ‘Look, are you sure you can’t just be you? Like, look like you and do it?’ I said, ‘No, no, no man, I’m sorry, I don’t know how else to play this character.’ So then I did the makeup test, we’ve tested the fat hands, you know, and the whole look, and so we’re doing the wardrobe and there was no music playing … I said, ‘Look, let me just—I wanna do some moves for you…’ He just called me, and it was—he was laughing… He picked the music out, he edited this thing together, he was just pissing himself.”

Of course, it’s unlikely that Grossman could exist in a movie today. The character hasn’t aged particularly well. And neither has the movie. Even then, Tropic Thunder (despite being a hit that made nearly $200 million worldwide and scored Robert Downey Jr an Oscar nod, further his own career comeback) had attracted criticism for its treatment of mental illness and its use of Blackface. But despite everything, there still seems to be an appetite for the character–something that mirrors Cruise’s own career, which has thrived in spite of his connections with Scientology, and his famously demanding nature on set.

Cruise reprised the character at the MTV Movie Awards in 2020, which was followed by the news of a Les Grossman spinoff being put into production with Cruise returning.

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Tom Cruise's Les Grossman Character Is Finally Returning In The Best Way Possible

Released in 2008, "Tropic Thunder" is one of the more polarizing comedy flicks to come out of the era. Sure, it boasts a stacked cast, including Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black, Ben Stiller, and more, and the idea of a bunch of actors ending up stranded in a dangerous jungle while filming their latest movie certainly has comedy potential. Although, things like  RDJ's character, Kirk Lazarus, wearing blackface for most of the film , and the portrayal of Tugg Speedman's (Stiller) Simple Jack character , have led many to take a second, more critical look at the film.

Still, Tom Cruise 's Les Grossman is as funny as ever.

A gruff, money-hungry studio executive stationed in Los Angeles, California, Grossman spends much of the film overseeing Speedman, Lazarus, and the rest of the crew's progress — or lack thereof. All the while, he throws child-like temper tantrums and shows next to no respect for those beneath him. Nevertheless, he's among the most fondly remembered parts of "Tropic Thunder" thanks to Cruise's eccentric approach to the character coupled with the makeup and prosthetics that make it hard to tell it's the "Mission: Impossible" star in the first place.

While a "Tropic Thunder 2" hasn't materialized up to this point, as it turns out, Les Grossman is finally going to make a comeback in the near future. Here's what we know.

Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie are eager to bring Grossman back

As reported by Deadline on August 8, 2022, Tom Cruise and producer Christopher McQuarrie are putting together a handful of new projects. The first aligns more with Cruise's typical cinematic efforts since it's an action flick with the potential to become a franchise, and the second is an original song and dance-style musical that would give Cruise a nice break from his usual endeavors. As for the third, it will supposedly focus on Les Grossman in some form or fashion. Time will tell if this will put the character front-and-center in a production of his own or if he'll merely appear as a supporting player.

Talks of a Les Grossman spin-off date back to the early 2010s, with "Barry" star Bill Hader confirming in 2011 that it was even written (via MovieWeb ). However, as time went on, it never came to fruition, though Cruise has been vocal about wanting to return to the role in some form. "I don't know. I did Les Grossman for the MTV Awards...We'll have to see. That could be fun," he told ComicBook.com in May of 2022 of giving Grossman another shot, which, bearing in mind Deadline's report about Cruise and McQuarrie's next efforts, means we could be closer than ever to Grossman's triumphant return to the silver screen.

One can only hope that in the coming months, we hear more about all of Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie's upcoming collaborations — the Les Grossman title, especially.