Tom Cruise finds plenty to like in Jerry Maguire
December 14, 1996
Web posted at: 9:15 a.m. EST
From Correspondent Bill Tush
(CNN) -- It was 13 years ago when a relatively unknown
19-year-old actor named Tom Cruise burst onto the big screen
in a film called "Risky Business."
Since then Cruise has cut a wide swath in Hollywood with
films such as "Cocktail," "Rain Man," "Interview with a
Vampire," "A Few Good Men" and "Mission: Impossible," to name
a few.
Yet even though Cruise has become one of the world's
best-known film stars, he still comes across in an interview
as a regular guy who obviously has never lost his edge.
"I'm nervous before I work," Cruise says. "You want the movie
to make its money back, and I'm nervous because I want to
make a great movie."
This time around Cruise is hoping the winning streak
continues with "Jerry Maguire," in which Cruise plays a big
time sports agent who is unceremoniously dumped. Cruise's
Maguire does everything he can to hang on to his only client,
an egotistical second-string pro football player played by
Cuba Gooding Jr.
But there's more to Maguire than sports and money.
"I like watching sports, but I'm not interested in making a
movie about sports," Cruise says. "You could have taken this
guy and put him in any field. I like the people in it. I like
the relationship with the girl. There are so many levels to
this film."
"Jerry Maguire" was written and directed by Cameron Crowe,
who had a few things to think about when Cruise agreed to do
the picture.
Crowe said one of his biggest nightmares while doing the film
was dropping "the golden egg," a reference to Cruise.
"You know, I think he's tremendous," Cruise responds. "He'd
worked (on the film) for four years. And for me, I just
didn't want to choke on his character, really, because I just
didn't want to ruin his script."
Judging from the early reviews of "Jerry Maguire," Cruise and
Crowe have nothing to worry about.
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