Fans Had A Lot Of Opinions About This 60 Minutes Interview With Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise had quite the year in 2022. Appearing as Maverick once more in "Top Gun: Maverick," the sequel earned him what is now his highest-grossing movie of all-time (via Deadline). That's certainly impressive given that Cruise has been one of the biggest movie stars on the planet for decades, releasing major blockbusters over the years from the "Mission: Impossible" series to "The Last Samurai." But it was the late 1980s and the 1990s that truly catapulted Cruise to fame with movies like "Rain Man," "Days of Thunder," "A Few Good Men," "The Firm," "Jerry Maguire," and "Eyes Wide Shut" (via IMDb). In fact, two of his three Academy Award nominations would come from that era, both for Best Actor in a Leading Role on "Born on the Fourth of July" and "Jerry Maguire."
Cruise's popularity as a leading man certainly didn't fade there, as the early 2000s would see him continue to make popular movies with "Minority Report," "Collateral," and "Valkyrie." However, the mid-2000s would see Cruise deal with a lot of attention on his personal life. His love life was being particularly investigated by the media, along with his faith in Scientology. He had many interviewers ask about his split with former wife Nicole Kidman, to who he was married from 1990 to 2001 (via Us Weekly).
Ultimately, Cruise would sit down to speak about his life in one specific "60 Minutes" interview that fans still seem to have a lot of opinions about.
Fans notice Tom Cruise's clear disdain for his 60 Minutes interview in 2005
According to a recent thread on Reddit, fans of Tom Cruise still have a lot of opinions about an interview the actor did with "60 Minutes Australia" and journalist Peter Overton back in 2005. U/BurgandyBurgerBugle posted the video with the caption, "Tom Cruise hates this interviewer." The interview became infamous over the years due to the clear tension after Overton asked some questions that Cruise feels are ill-mannered. "60 Minutes Australia" reposted the interview on YouTube in 2018 and the video currently has over 3 million views.
Other fans believe the questions feel inappropriate. A since-deleted user said, "Like Tom Cruise or not, a lot of those questions were incredibly inappropriate." U/oakattack agreed, explaining that many shows don't care what they ask their celebrity guests. "60 Minutes, A Current Affair, and Today Tonight have no concerns to what they ask their guests. They'll either corner them or straight out ask inappropriate questions, get a massive reaction and then do everything they can to shame the celebrity."
However, other fans like u/JOsorio246 took the position that Overton was simply doing what a journalist is meant to do by asking those questions. They said, "the purpose of journalism is not to be ”appropriate” or ”inappropriate” it's to ask honest challenging questions. It's ignorant to say that perception does not exist in the public perception."
Either way, this interview still stands as one of many celebrity interviews gone wrong over the years.