Cruise Control: 40 Lesser-Known Facts About Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise once had Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith, Leah Remini, and others over at his house and tried to play hide-and-seek with them, going so far as to run off into 3 acres of land.

27. Tom Cruise wears a thong made from soft and stretchy material while filming a movie because it provides him with “comfort and flexibility.” In fact, he requires custom-made thongs while filming his stunt scenes.

28. Tom Cruise sued porn actor Chad Slater after he told a magazine he was involved in an affair with Cruise. Slater was ordered to pay $10 million in damages. After defaulting on the suit, he later admitted the story was false. Cruise has also sued two other publications for homosexual claims.

29. The only reason Tom Cruise was literally in a closet in the South Park episode “Trapped in the Closet”, was Trey Parker getting around the legal repercussions of calling him gay directly. The Lawyers wouldn’t allow it, so he rewrote the scene to have him trapped in a closet. All the names on the credits of that episode read either “John Smith” or “Jane Smith” due to Tom Cruise’s and Scientologists’ reputation of suing people.

30. Tom Cruise is an avid fencer. He has taught Will Smith and David Beckham how to fence and even has a special room where he and his guy friends can do some sword swinging.

Christian Bale saw Tom Cruise on the Late Show with David Letterman while preparing for his role in American Psycho. Cruise’s “intense friendliness with nothing behind the eyes” became the inspiration for how Bale would portray the psychopathic murderer.

32. In 2007 Germany imposed a “ban on Tom Cruise” for the filming of Valkyrie, a film based on Colonel von Stauffenberg’s attempted assassination of Adolf Hitler. The reason for the ban was due to Cruise’s belief in Scientology, a religion deemed cult and unconstitutional by Germany.

33. In 2005, the municipal government of Paris passed an official resolution so that unlike in Marseille, Tom Cruise would never be made an honorary citizen, specifically because of his affiliation with Scientology.

34. In 2006, the California Assembly voted to restrict the use of ultrasound machines for personal use after Tom Cruise bought an ultrasound machine to see images of his unborn child.

35. Tom Cruise once proposed that psychiatry be outlawed. He said, “I think [psychiatry] is an utter waste of time. There’s nothing scientific about it. Communication is a good thing, but I think people get more mentally out of having a good meal or going for a walk. I think psychiatry should be outlawed.”

There was a “detoxification project” co-founded by Tom Cruise that claimed to treat 9/11 rescue workers for “toxins”, using a method created by L. Ron Hubbard.

37. During the birth of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ child, there were signs reading “Be silent and make all physical movements slow and understandable.” in accordance with the Silent Birth practice advocated by the Scientology church.

38. Scientologist Michele Miscavige mysteriously disappeared in August 2007 after attempting to foil the relationship between Tom Cruise and her husband David Miscavige, leader of the church of Scientology.

39. Tom Cruise doesn’t allow his likeness to be used in video games or for action figures. Even as far back as 1987, Cruise hasn't lent his likeness to a video game adaptation nor even agreed to have his face plastered on a game box.

40. One of the most popular videogames ever, DOOM was named after a Tom Cruise quote. Programmer John Carmack said in an interview that the game’s title was inspired by a scene in “The Color of Money.” Cruise’s character pulls out his custom cue case at a pool hall and someone asks ‘What do you have in there?’ Cruise replies... ‘Doom’