There’s no stopping Tom Cruise from conquering Hollywood’s box office even in his 60s, and that’s all thanks to one movie he did when he was 20 – Paul Brickman’s Risky Business (1983). The film catapulted the actor to stardom and it paved the way for him to become a major leading man material.
When he took the offer to do the movie, he was also working on another project with veteran director Francis Ford Coppola. To team up with such an esteemed filmmaker would be an honor, but Cruise shockingly left the rehearsals for Brickman’s movie.
Tom Cruise Left a Francis Ford Coppola Movie for Risky Business
Hollywood hunk Tom Cruise collaborated with Francis Ford Coppola in the 1983 crime thriller film The Outsiders, and at the time, the actor was not yet a big name. Still, the director trusted him so much he offered another project: Rumble Fish. They did a couple of workshops and rehearsals for the film, but Cruise dropped from it when he was offered Risky Business.
In a post from Variety, it was revealed that many actors such as Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon, and John Cusack auditioned for the part of Joel Goodsen, but none was more suitable than Cruise. The young star did a screen test for Paul Brickman’s film during one of his days off from The Outsiders, and the rest is history.
Speaking in an interview via The Bobbie Wygant Archive, the Mission: Impossible star said he was so enthusiastic about t he script for Risky Business that he decided to leave Coppola’s Rumble Fish.
I was gonna do Rumble Fish if I didn’t do Risky Business. I was offered Rumble Fish. Francis Ford Coppola directed that, and I was really interested in Risky Business. And so it worked out, I mean, I really want to do this film.
This would have been the biggest and riskiest move he ever made in his career. At the time, there was no guarantee that the film would be a success, and rejecting a Coppola project was truly a bold decision. But the odds were in his favour and Risky Business proved to be worth the gamble. Now, it is considered as the film that made Tom Cruise who he is now.
Risky Business Was Tom Cruise’s Learning Ground
Cruise is known to be very hands-on when it comes to his movies. He does his own stunts and is very meticulous with the scripts, and he owes this to his experience in Risky Business.
The Top Gun star told Access Hollywood that it was a learning experience for him to see how movie footages were post-processed.
I went in the editing room, and I saw the shots and looked at how editorially they were putting it together. So I started really understanding that cinematic process right from the very beginning.
Now, fans witness epic shots especially in his action movies. Cruise’s films today might be worth billion-dollar, but nothing compares to the one that made him worldwide famous.