Tom Cruise tapped into his emotions The Last Samurai thinking about his son Connor.
In the memoirs of Ed Zwick Hits, failures and other illusions: my forty-something yearsthe director, 71, recalled his observations of Cruise’s weak points while filming the 2003 drama.
He said he noticed Cruise was “sweet and attentive” to the young actor in an earlier scene and was close to his then-8-year-old son Connor, who he shares with ex-wife Nicole Kidman.
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Aiming to elicit more natural emotions from Cruise, now 61, for the scene, Zwick pulled the actor aside and asked him to talk about Connor.
” ‘Tell me about your son,’ I said. He looked at me in surprise. I knew that Connor had just returned to LA and that Tom wouldn’t be seeing him for a while. Tom was quiet for a moment. And then he started talking. It didn’t matter that he said in those few brief moments in the fading light. I watched as he looked in and the window seemed to open and his eyes softened,” Zwick wrote.
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With the days fading, the upcoming shoot was under a time crunch — and Cruise ended up “nailing the scene.”
On their way off the set, Zwick remembers looking the actor in the eye and Cruise telling him “thank you.”
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Despite his celebrity, Cruise has often kept his personal life private, including details about his children. He and Kidman, 56, share Isabella, 31, and Connor, 29. From his marriage to Katie Holmes, he also has a daughter, Suri, who is now 17 years old.
Hits, failures and other illusions: my forty-something years it is now available wherever books are sold.
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Source: HIS Education