“He would willingly chip his tooth”: Even Francis Ford Coppola Couldn’t Believe the Lengths Tom Cruise Went That Most Young Actors Won’t Dare

SUMMARY

• Filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola is set to return to the cinema after decades with his magnum opus Megalopolis.
• The visionary filmmaker has always experimented with his films and has given multiple stars to Hollywood, including Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, and more.
• Another star who had one of his earliest roles in a Coppola film was Tom Cruise, who The Godfather filmmaker remembered would go above and beyond for the role.

Show More▼

Francis Ford Coppola is known for introducing or at least giving a chance to many future stars in his films. While films like The Godfather and its sequel propelled actors like Al Pacino and Robert De Niro to global stardom, his coming-of-age film The Outsiders was the breakthrough of a bunch of rising stars.

Apart from actors like Matt Dillon and Patrick Swayze, the film also starred a young Tom Cruise just before his breakthrough as a lead in Risky Business. Coppola remembered the action star’s commitment to the role and athletic abilities, mentioning that if the character called for a chipped tooth, Cruise would make it happen.

Francis Ford Coppola Fondly Remembers Tom Cruise’s Commitment As A Young Actor In The Outsiders

Francis Ford Coppola | Credits: YouTube/Full Bodied Productions

Francis Ford Coppola has always been a visionary filmmaker. His latest magnum opus Megalopolis is seemingly an experiment that might break the bank, or tank like a house of cards, for the film has been a risk from the beginning. Having worked on it for over four decades and financing it fully, Coppola seems to have everything to lose.

However, the director’s legacy is nothing to doubt as he has made classics like Apocalypse Now and The Godfather trilogy, which introduced the world to the talents of Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. His other films have also featured prominent actors or future stars. In fact, Mission Impossible star Tom Cruise had a supporting role in Coppola’s The Outsiders.

Tom Cruise in The Outsiders | Credits: Warner Bros.

While the cast of the coming-of-age film was stacked with rising stars, Coppola fondly remembered Cruise’s time on the sets of the film and mentioned how everyone was excited for him as he had booked Risky Business. He also appreciated his commitment (via Deadline),

I was impressed by his willingness to go to extremes in creating a character. If the role called for a chipped tooth, he would willingly chip his tooth. He is also very athletic, which you can clearly see in the scene where he backflips off a car. He did not go light or easy in his commitment. 

While Coppola said that he could not predict the meteoric rise Tom Cruise would have in subsequent years, he admitted that he was impressed by his commitment.

Francis Ford Coppola Handpicked Various Upcoming Stars By An Unusual Audition Process

A still from The Outsiders | Credits: Warner Bros.

From the get-go, Francis Ford Coppola has been a filmmaker who has not conformed to Hollywood standard operating procedures. While this attitude has led to him fighting many battles, his biggest one was his battle to get Megalopolis made and released.

Even in The Outsiders, which featured rising stars of the ‘80s such as Patrick Swayze, C Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Tom Cruise, Ralph Macchio, and Diane Lane among others, Coppola reportedly took on a different approach to auditioning actors. He said,

I felt strongly that everyone who showed up be given a chance to show their strengths, so we held them in an open arena where everyone was able to watch the other actors’ auditions for the same roles. The method was as new to them as it was for me. Through that process, I discovered a wealth of talent from which to choose.

The filmmaker mentioned that it may have been the ‘luck of the draw’ that got him such an impressive cast, including a young Tom Cruise, who reportedly chipped his own tooth to portray the character better.

The Outsiders is available for rent on Apple TV.

Written by Nishanth A

Articles Published: 1353

Nishanth A is a Media, English and Psychology graduate from Bangalore. He is an avid DC fanboy and loves the films of Christopher Nolan. He has published over 1,000 articles on FandomWire. When he's not fixating on the entire filmography of a director, he tries to write and direct films.