Real Reason Why Tom Cruise Has No Stunt Doubles Sounds Even More Bizarre
Tom Cruise is known for his perfectionism when it comes to performing stunts, so he doesn't hire stunt doubles, but there's another reason for it, and it sounds insane.
Stunt doubles are a massive part of the movie industry: while actors get paid for their performance and ability to impersonate their characters, stunt doubles receive their cheques for taking on the life-threatening risks that those characters have to face.
They often perform extremely dangerous tasks (and look good doing it) and sometimes even die on the set if something goes wrong.
Most great action scenes we see on the screen were performed by stunt doubles, but there are a few actors who refuse their services.
Tom Cruise is not just one of those actors — he's a man who does everything himself, and we mean everything.
His possibly most famous franchise, Mission: Impossible, saw the actor pull off the unthinkable multiple times.
You probably remember the scenes where his character climbs Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, or runs on top of a moving plane that was 5,000 feet in the air…
The thing is, it wasn't just the character who did this: Tom Cruise performed these and many other insane stunts in real life on his own.
Many stunt doubles wouldn't have taken a gig like these as they are obviously way too reckless, but Cruise does them even though he doesn't exactly need to. Why?
There are three reasons for this, and while two are well-known, the third one will take your understanding of just how great Tom Cruise is to the next level.
First of all, Cruise is a massive perfectionist. The actor is famously trying to control and perfect everything, and admittedly, there's no better way to ensure that a stunt is performed perfectly and in style than to do it yourself.
Second of all, Tom is a notorious adrenaline junkie. Risk and danger really get this man going, and he seeks adrenaline even beyond the set; it's no wonder he also takes on stunt jobs whenever possible, too.
But the third reason is something else.
In the very same Mission: Impossible franchise, some of the stunts were handed over to him by the stunt coordinator just because… None of the stunt doubles were even remotely as good as Tom Cruise!
This specifically refers to any and all driving stunts. The insane professional (and adrenaline junkie) that he is, Cruise knows how to handle cars, motorcycles, boats, helicopters, planes of various sizes and purposes, and god knows what else.
His driving and piloting skills are legendary, too, so, for Rogue Nation, the stunt coordinator didn't even try to search for someone better than Tom Cruise.
A Hollywood actor is far more reckless and professional with stunts than the people who are literally paid for this. It's just really, really bizarre if you think about it.