Tom Cruise shared a story from his early career when he made the mistake of shaving his head without consulting the director while filming Taps. In his own words, he wasn’t aware that there were certain restrictions on what actors could do without permission. The conversation also had him talking about his dream of pursuing a film career and how he figured things out for himself.
Tom Cruise shaved his head for Taps
In a conversation with GQ, Cruise opened up about his blunder on the set of Taps. He said that he didn’t know that there were specific things that one was not allowed to do on the movie set without permission. He detailed going into town and shaving his head without informing director Harold Becker.
Citing the reason why he did so, he added, “Because he said, ‘Create the character.’ I showed up on set, and I took my hat off and [director Harold Becker] looked at me, and he’s like, ‘What’d you do? You got to tell the director.’ I was like, ‘Oh, sorry.’ Everything was Yes, sir. No, sir. Yes, ma’am. No, ma’am.”
Before sharing this instance from the sets, the Mission: Impossible actor also spoke about his dreams and what he wanted from life, saying, “But I’ve talked to many people, and they’re like, ‘Sometimes you’ve got to keep things to yourself.’ And those dreams, I’d write them on a board, and I had them on my wall. And it wasn’t: I want to be famous.”
Cruise added that he always wanted to make movies, travel the world, “know people and know life.” He said, “So then I just started studying. I’m on a movie set, and I’m looking at every single department, and I had a dream.”
Taps is a thriller movie that follows a greedy real estate company that threatens to demolish a military school. However, the students don’t resist their injustice; rather, they rebel and take control of the campus.
