# Why do people hate Tom Cruise? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 23, 2012, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763 "2012-04-23T23:39:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![kelly5078](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6f9a4e/32.png) [@kelly5078](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kelly5078)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763/61 "2012-04-24T19:29:49Z")
I’m not hating. I think he’s a pretty good actor, and like maybe half his movies (including “Eyes Wide Shut,” which may not be the high point of Kubrick’s career, but is nicely creepy). Scientology does make me raise an eyebrow, though. Anyone who’s into that crap falls a few notches in my estimation. I was dismayed to find out the Giovanni Ribisi is a cult member. Then again, anyone who goes off on Oprah rises a bit. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763/62 "2012-04-24T19:50:52Z")
> [@well\_he\_s\_back](#): > > purplehorseshoe - Cruise was in a movie called “Eyes Wide Shut” that only film snobs liked but apparently showed his then-wife Nicole Kidman’s breasts. Yeah, we’ve all seen her breasts. But what about her jubblies??? ---
**Author:** ![Chastain86](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Chastain86](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chastain86)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763/63 "2012-04-24T19:53:05Z")
> [@kelly5078](#): > > Scientology does make me raise an eyebrow, though. Anyone who’s into that crap falls a few notches in my estimation. I was dismayed to find out the Giovanni Ribisi is a cult member. I did the same thing when I found out Jason Lee was a member of the Church of Scientology. Lee’s ex-wife Llewellyn (who keen-eyed viewers might remember played the blonde lesbian who made out with Joey Lauren Adams in the bar scene in Chasing Amy) [spoke out against the church in 2010](http://gawker.com/5508855/jason-lees-ex+wife-blasts-scientology-travoltas-and-cruises), blaming it for the dissolution of her marriage to Lee and her addiction to painkillers. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763/64 "2012-04-24T19:53:44Z")
some would say that he’s jumped the couch. ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763/65 "2012-04-24T19:55:37Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > I hated him long before he became (known as, anyway) a Scientologist. My main reasons are: > > 1. Can’t act. “Mugging” is not acting. > 2. Unbelievably smug. > 3. Ruins at least one should-have-been-good movie per year. > 4. STILL can’t act! It’s been years, douchebag; take a class already! > 5. Fucked up a good thing with Nicole. > 6. Dissed my alma mater in Risky Business. > > And those are just my reasons. Plenty of other people have devoted precious internet storage space to cataloging their own reasons: > > [http://blogcritics.org/culture/article/ten-things-i-hate-about-tom/](http://blogcritics.org/culture/article/ten-things-i-hate-about-tom/) > [bone idle idol - Tom Cruise article](http://www.dowse.com/movies/boneidleidol.html) > [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=207436&perpage=50&pagenumber=1](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=207436&perpage=50&pagenumber=1) Pretty much what **Mr. Mortiss** says here, with the exception of the alma mater bit. I’ve never liked his “acting”. He’s boring and he’s not really good looking. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763/66 "2012-04-24T20:03:48Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Yeah, we’ve all seen her breasts. But what about her jubblies??? \< Lewis Black \> I hear it goes with any decor. \< /Lewis Black \> ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763/67 "2012-04-24T20:04:42Z")
I think he is a decent actor. I thought he did well in _Rainman_, _Born on the Fourth of July_, and _The Last Samurai_. Scientology . . . worries me, to put it mildly. For a group that claims to be benevolent, they are awfully litigious. The things I really hate about Tom Cruise: He is rich, and I am not. He is pretty, and I am not. He boned Rebecca de Mornay, and I didn’t. He boned Mimi Rogers, and I didn’t. He boned Nicole Kidman, and I didn’t. He boned Penelope Cruz, and I didn’t. He bones Katie Holmes, and I don’t. That bastard. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763/68 "2012-04-24T20:31:52Z")
His statements criticizing Brooke Shield put him over the edge for me. He stated that he, a high school dropout, knew more about drugs than Shields, a graduate of Princeton. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763/69 "2012-04-24T20:40:46Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > He boned Mimi Rogers, and I didn’t. [actually…](http://www.hollywood.com/news/Mimi_Rogers_Split_from_A_Celibate_Tom_Cruise/2443576) > [@Hollywood](#): > > Hollywood actress Mimi Rogers split from her ex-husband Tom Cruise because he refused to have sex and wanted to become a monk. _\<\<\\>\>_ She says, “He was seriously thinking of becoming a monk. He thought he had to be celibate to maintain the purity of his instrument, but my instrument needed tuning, and we had to split.” Wow. He started the sham marriages early, didn’t he? I think a link to a clip from [South Park](http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/155090/tom-cruise-wont-come-out-of-the-closet) is appropriate here. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763/70 "2012-04-24T20:44:52Z")
Can’t say I hate the guy since I don’t know him personally and probably never will have the opportunity to do so, so he’s no skin off my nose. But I do have to appreciate that he’s been in a lot of movies that I liked over the years: Top Gun Rainman Days of Thunder A Few good Men Interview with the Vampire Mission Impossible I,II,III,IV Jerry Maguire Minority Report Collateral War of the Worlds He certainly didn’t ruin any of these movies for me and they were all enjoyable. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763/71 "2012-04-24T20:45:23Z")
> [@well\_he\_s\_back](#): > > I agree with you, Larry Borgia, but I hate Scientology with a passion that exceeds my passion for fundamentalist Christianity or fundamentalist Islam. Does that make me a Nazi? > > well I guess that was off topic. sorry. Only if you want to exterminate them. Or maybe that would make you a Dalek. Either way it’s bad to exterminate people who belong to groups you don’t like. On topic: I don’t hate Tom Cruise, but I don’t like him as an actor. He radiates a certain smugness which diminishes the movies he’s in. However, I’ve heard he’s not a bad guy in person and isn’t hard to work with. I don’t really care about his wacky spiritual beliefs. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763/72 "2012-04-24T20:55:14Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > He boned Rebecca de Mornay, and I didn’t. In a movie, though, right? I don’t keep up with the celeb relationships, but I didn’t know they were ever an item IRL. I mean, I don’t think he actually came in Cameron Diaz’s mouth, [either](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0259711/combined). ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763/73 "2012-04-24T20:55:51Z")
> [@A Monkey With a Gun](#): > > Wow. He started the sham marriages early, didn’t he? I think a link to a clip from [South Park](http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/155090/tom-cruise-wont-come-out-of-the-closet) is appropriate here. There is a long-time SDMB poster (can’t recall who but not someone prone to tell stories, as far as I am concerned) who has stated that their cousin (or some other close male relative or friend) had a gay hookup with Tom Cruise several years back; Normally I give these 2nd hand celebrity sex stories ZERO credence, but because of who the poster was and the nature of the relationship with the person who claimed the encounter, I am convinced it probably happened exactly as stated. Probably some of his bizarre behavior over the years is because he is so deeply closeted, which must be a huge burden and could make almost anyone act abnormally. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763/74 "2012-04-24T20:58:20Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > How’s that? Aren’t most members of a cult victims of it? I don’t know for sure of course, but I’d bet Cruise gave them much more money than he has received from them. In fact, I’d be surprised to learn if he received any money from them. I suppose he might have gained some benefit from membership, but my feel is that he is basically being taken advantage of. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763/75 "2012-04-24T21:06:55Z")
"In an interview in this month’s _Vanity Fair_, actor Tom Cruise attempts to end, once and for all, [rumors that he is gay](http://i46.tinypic.com/35klv1t.jpghttp://). " — Norm MacDonald, _SNL Weekend Update with Norm MacDonald_ ---
**Author:** ![Namkcalb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c89c15/32.png) [@Namkcalb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namkcalb)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763/76 "2012-04-24T22:43:52Z")
> [@Larry\_Borgia](#): > > A key tenet of Nazism was the destruction of a particular despised religion. To advocate that a religion should be “wiped from the face of the earth” and that its adherents need to “be sent to Coventry” (i.e. disappeared), is to espouse a philosophy indistinguishable from Nazism. Whether the hated religious people are Jews, Scientologists, or some little cult that got founded last week is irrelevant. A slight nitpick, the genocide of the Jews was based on ethnicity, not religious practice. They sent ethnically Jewish nuns to the camps, but they didn’t discriminate against the similar Muslim religion. They did however persecute certain pacifist religious groups, the Jehovah’s Witnesses were one of them. So your analogy still stands. > [@well\_he\_s\_back](#): > > I agree with you, Larry Borgia, but I hate Scientology with a passion that exceeds my passion for fundamentalist Christianity or fundamentalist Islam. Does that make me a Nazi? I think we need to make a distinction between the organisation, the “church” of Scientology, and the religious practices established by LRon Hubbard. The organisation is undeniably bad, but “Freezone” scientologists have no connection to the organisation. Which do you hate? ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763/77 "2012-04-24T23:05:11Z")
> [@Larry\_Borgia](#): > > A key tenet of Nazism was the destruction of a particular despised religion. To advocate that a religion should be “wiped from the face of the earth” and that its adherents need to “be sent to Coventry” (i.e. disappeared), is to espouse a philosophy indistinguishable from Nazism. Whether the hated religious people are Jews, Scientologists, or some little cult that got founded last week is irrelevant. Sent to Coventry doesn’t mean what you want it to mean. > **[Send to Coventry](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Send_to_Coventry)** > > "Send to Coventry" is an idiom used in England meaning to deliberately ostracise someone. Typically, this is done by not talking to them, avoiding their company, and acting as if they no longer exist. Coventry is a historical cathedral city in the West Midlands county. > The origins of this phrase are unknown, although it is quite probable that events in Coventry in the English Civil War in the 1640s play a part. One hypothesis as to its origin is based upon The History of the Rebellion and Ci... ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763/78 "2012-04-24T23:20:58Z")
_Thank_ you! **Somebody** got the reference. Mention of RAH also would have been accepted by the judges. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763/79 "2012-04-24T23:37:45Z")
My big problem with Cruise as an actor is that I can almost never forget that he’s Tom Cruise. It seems that lmost no matter the role, he’ll turn and give some kind of smirk or smarm and _bam_, I starting wondering that mercenary is fighting Tom Cruise, instead of his _character_. He’s capable of a decent performance, but he can’t seem to stop being Tom Cruise for more than five minutes at a stretch. ---
**Author:** ![living\_in\_hell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3d9bf3/32.png) [@living\_in\_hell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/living_in_hell)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763/80 "2012-04-24T23:39:48Z")
I always respected his ability to navigate his dyslexia. If true I think it’s shitty he is gay and too afraid to come out. I think he’s an asshole for bashing postpartum and rx. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763.md?page=5)