Tom Cruise was celebrated in Hollywood on Saturday night at the Producers Guild of America awards, where he was presented the career achievement David O Selznick Award. Top Gun: Maverick was also nominated for Best Picture. Everything Everywhere All At Once took the prize, which is a solid bellwether for Oscar, although some industry analysts are wondering whether or not the early announcement that Tom would receive the Selznick may have made it easier for PGA voters to go with EEAAO because they knew that Tom would be there with an award anyway. So as Sarah noted earlier in her post about EEAAO at the SAG awards, the Best Picture Oscar is far from locked. This is still a tight race. 

 

Tom took his time at the PGAs to talk about his time in the industry, namechecking all kinds of insiders in the room – not household names but definitely power names in Hollywood – and repeating the only thing he ever says, which is that he loves making movies and he only wants to entertain, it’s the only thing he ever wants to do. He ended his remarks by telling the room that he’s “rooting for all of you” and that he’s only able to have this career because of the creative collective: “I am because you are”; essentialy Tom Cruise is the man of the people, the Hollywood people. That’s a message he repeated on Jimmy Kimmel Live! the night before, where he and Jimmy also talked through his crazy ass stunts and what he will sacrifice to give the audience a thrilling experience. (Both videos are below.) This is the final Maverick push for Oscar gold and these are standard campaign strategies, leaning into how Tom insisted on theatrical release for TG:M and thereby “saved Hollywood’s ass”, as Steven Spielberg said. Tom is the ultimate Movie Star, the ultimate Producer, the ultimate Cinephile, the ultimate Storyteller. He’s basically Hollywood’s Superhero. 

 

But then… 

There’s Tom the musical theatre kid. Who will be appearing during James Corden’s final episode of The Late Late Show in April in a Lion King sketch in which he’ll play Pumbaa. 

 

I can’t. 

I saw this happening on Friday, along with the videos of the sketch and… well… this man does not half-ass anything. If he says he’s going to be Pumbaa, he’s going to go take it full Pumbaa, complete with the vocals. 

Vibrato is correct! Listen to him drawing out the last syllable on “Matataaaaaaa”. And with the same intensity and dedication as he does when he’s jumping out of an airplane! 

 

There was a time when Tom Cruise would happily dance and sing, no matter the occasion. He’s had to supress that side of himself for years now. But now that he’s back on top, is he leaking back out? During the press tour for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1, due out in July, who’s going to be the first to get him to try a TikTok dance?