A advantage of being Tom Cruise should be that each time he needs one thing to occur, he’s in all probability in a position to make it occur. Even when it got here to providing casting strategies to a notoriously finicky director like Stanley Kubrick, Cruise managed to get his approach, convincing the “Eyes Vast Shut” filmmaker to carry then-wife Nicole Kidman into the venture. Talking for an interview featured within the June situation of Sight and Sound (as per The Impartial), the “Mission Unimaginable” star recalled touring to England to satisfy Kubrick for the primary time and pitching Kidman for “Eyes Vast Shut” proper then and there.
“I flew out to his home and I landed in his yard. I learn the script the day earlier than and we spent the day speaking about it. I knew all of his movies,” Cruise mentioned. “Then it was mainly he and I attending to know one another. And once we had been doing that, I recommended Nicole play the function [of Alice]. As a result of clearly she’s an amazing actress.”
As on most of his movies, Cruise’s mindset in working with Kubrick was “no matter it’s going to take we’re going to do that.” Even after a shoot that was solely speculated to final “three or 4 months” blew up right into a 12 months and alter as a result of reshoots and Kubrick’s obsessive consideration to element. Wanting again on the work at this time, Cruise values it for the teachings he realized and the way distinctive the movie continues to be.
“I believed the movie was very fascinating, and I wished to have that have,” he mentioned. “After I go to make a film, I do quite a lot of detailed investigation and quite a lot of time with the individuals earlier than I commit in order that I perceive what they want and wish and so they perceive me and the way we will work collectively and actually create one thing very particular.”
In an interview with the Los Angeles Occasions final summer time, Kidman additionally reminisced on her work in “Eyes Vast Shut,” having her personal reasoning for why Kubrick introduced her onto the venture. She believed it was her “boldness” that made her the precise match for Alice, spouse to Cruise’s New York physician, each of whom have gone under-stimulated of their considerably tepid marriage.
“I suppose that was why he forged me. That mischief, that provocative nature, he discovered that out and it bought extra imbued into Alice,” mentioned Kidman to the LA Occasions. “The scene the place I drop the gown … that was me. That wasn’t written. That was my gown from my closet. ‘That is how I take off the gown, Stanley.’ As a result of I had quite a lot of garments, we weren’t paying to purchase garments. And Stanley had come over and I used to be exhibiting him all these stunning clothes. That’s how that occurred.”