# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763/81 "2012-04-24T23:58:44Z")
We need a reason to hate him? Seriously though anyone who uses his celebrity to spread the poisonous nonsense that all psychiatric medication is useless is an ignorant and dangerous asshole. That’s ample reason for me to loathe the sight of the man. ---
**Author:** ![Beastly\_Rotter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@Beastly\_Rotter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beastly_Rotter)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763/82 "2012-04-25T00:52:59Z")
> [@CJJ](#): > > “Top Gun” was a minor step up, but then he was suddenly cast in films opposite truly great actors: Paul Newman in “The Color of Money”, Dustin Hoffman in “Rainman”, Robert Duvall in “Days of Thunder”. And IMO his acting was nowhere near their caliber. Unfortunately, I think a lot of people confuse Big Acting with Good Acting: Cruise stole Rainman, anchoring it solidly while Dustin Hoffman’s took care of the Look At Me I’m Acting, and he did the same for A Few Good Men opposite Jack Nicholson. He may not be a flashy actor, but he is a very, very solid one: he’s like a good rhythm section, nailing the beat to the floor while the lead singer and guitarist take care of the showing off. It’s not a common skill, and not an easy one. ---
**Author:** ![Toxgoddess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Toxgoddess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxgoddess)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763/83 "2012-04-25T00:57:03Z")
> [@phreesh](#): > > I disagree with this, but still find it hilarious and kind of spot on, if that makes any sense. I thought it said “Keanu’s asshole’s older brother” and thought it was incredibly creative- and hilarious! ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763/84 "2012-04-25T02:44:57Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > 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. He can do so occassionally (he was fantastic in _Interview with the Vampire_), but normally it seems he doesn’t make the effort. I would have liked to see _Valkyrie_, but I just couldn’t get past the fact that his character didn’t even TRY for a German accent. WTF, Tom? Are you going for a Kevin Costner, ala Robin Hood thing? As for Scientology, I read the book _A Piece of Blue Sky_ recently. I’d reccomend it for those who are interested in learning more about Scientology. Let’s also not forget that John Travolta and his wife refused to admit that their son had autism until he died, insisting it was Kawasaki Syndrome. And that it had been caused by carpet cleaners or some nonsense. (And count me in with those who said his comments about Brooke Shields were vile. Her reaction to them only showed how much of a better person she is, and how much class she has.) ---
**Author:** ![Quint](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/76d3ee/32.png) [@Quint](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quint)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763/85 "2012-04-25T05:05:59Z")
I disliked Tom Cruise for a long time for his smarmy persona and because of a number of his whacked out interviews. However, a number of people I know and trust worked on the latest Mission Impossible and they all had nothing but great things to say about him. One freind does video playback (recording what the cameras shoot so the director and other crew can review the shots immediatly after the takes). He said that at the end of the first day Tom came up to him and thanked him and shook his hand for doing such a great job, using his name. “Thanks Dan (names changed to protect the innocent) for being so on the ball with the playback.” “Dan” says that is the first time ever that anyone on any crew has thanked him for doing his job, and he was blown away that one of the biggest stars on the planet took the time to learn his name and thank him personally. Is he a douchebag? Maybe, but a very likeable douchebag in person. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763/86 "2012-04-25T09:54:37Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > I would have liked to see _Valkyrie_, but I just couldn’t get past the fact that his character didn’t even TRY for a German accent. WTF, Tom? Are you going for a Kevin Costner, ala Robin Hood thing? Why should he? All the characters are speaking German, aren’t they? Either the actors should speak German, or they should speak English; they shouldn’t speak in “English so the unable-to-read-subtitles monolinguals can understand, but with a German accent so those same people never forget the character is German”. Do the characters in To Be or Not To Be speak with a German accent, and the whole cast of Anna Karenina have a Russian one? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763/87 "2012-04-25T10:13:35Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Why should he? All the characters are speaking German, aren’t they? Either the actors should speak German, or they should speak English; they shouldn’t speak in “English so the unable-to-read-subtitles monolinguals can understand, but with a German accent so those same people never forget the character is German”. > > Do the characters in To Be or Not To Be speak with a German accent, and the whole cast of Anna Karenina have a Russian one? I haven’t seen the movie, but are you saying that no one else spoke with a German accent either? Then I agree. Otherwise I disagree. Speaking with an accent has long been a way to distinguish that you are actually speaking the other language. It doesn’t mean it’s always used, especially in cases where no other language is ever spoken, but it is a legitimate trope. ---
**Author:** ![phxjcc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8491ac/32.png) [@phxjcc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phxjcc)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763/88 "2012-04-25T10:13:57Z")
The opposite of love is not hate, it is apathy. Apathy is when you would do nothing for someone. Love is when you would do anything. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763/89 "2012-04-25T11:05:35Z")
> [@Scupper](#): > > If you had Tom Cruise’s troubles, you be [Tom Cruise Crazy](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4PNpFjKVfY), too! Gaah! I was all ready to post the self-same video and you’ve done it already. Anyhoo, I liked him in _Tropic Thunder_ and he does comedy better than you’d expect, but he is definitely one of those actors where you’re always aware that you’re watching the actor rather than accepting him as the character. In some movies this works; in others it is intensely irritating. Which is which is left as an exercise for the viewer. ---
**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 25, 2012, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763/90 "2012-04-25T18:11:22Z")
> [@drastic\_quench](#): > > Sent to Coventry doesn’t mean what you want it to mean. > > [Send to Coventry - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Send_to_Coventry) Fair enough, I’ll retract the Nazi charge. But talk of extirpating unpopular groups still makes me queasy. ---
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763/91 "2012-04-25T20:09:20Z")
> [@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. I’m not a movie snob at all and I kinda liked that movie. Parts of it anyway. I think people are put off by Cruise’s sneer. He can’t seem to get that smirky sneer off his face. Even when his acting is OK and the movie is really about explosions anyway, that sneer unsettles me a little. He can’t possibly be a worse actor than Arnold or any of a number of other action movie stars. ---
**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 25, 2012, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763/92 "2012-04-25T20:43:11Z")
> [@shiftless](#): > > that sneer unsettles me a little.. Speaking of little, y’all realize how short he is? Gary Coleman toward over the dude. Female costars perform their parts on their knees. ETA: then there’s that whole Lucky Charms thing. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763/93 "2012-04-25T20:55:20Z")
> [@Larry\_Borgia](#): > > Fair enough, I’ll retract the Nazi charge. But talk of extirpating unpopular groups still makes me queasy. That’s natural, but when you are familiar with their posture and methods, you quickly file them in the same class as “unpopular” groups such as the Cosa Nostra, al Qaeda, and, umm, Nazis. The organization is too harmful to be tolerated. The protection offered by “the religion racket,” (as LRH himself characterized it, going in,) makes many people uncomfortable about contemplating cracking down on the organization - and that is by design. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763/94 "2012-04-25T21:45:32Z")
I am not one of his fans, and I am not a Scientologist , but he seems a decent enough bloke, unless he’s done something that I don’t know about and I think that some of the treatment he’s received smacks of victimisation. Do some hetro’s supect that the stories about him are true and hate him for that ? Or do some Gays believe the same thing but think that he’s sold them out by saying he’s not ? And are making him pay for it with a whispering campaign ? Personally I couldn’t give a flying duck whether he’s in the closet, out the closet or a whole set of bedroom furniture. I couldn’t care less if he prefers men, women or stuffed animals. Its none of my business or anyone elses. For the record I reckon he’s straight as a dye, though I’d bet money that theres many who wished that he wasn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2012, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763/95 "2012-04-26T09:26:05Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > I am not one of his fans, and I am not a Scientologist , but he seems a decent enough bloke, unless he’s done something that I don’t know about and I think that some of the treatment he’s received smacks of victimisation. Did you read the Brooke Shields thing? > [@](#): > > Do some hetro’s supect that the stories about him are true and hate him for that ? > > Or do some Gays believe the same thing but think that he’s sold them out by saying he’s not ? > And are making him pay for it with a whispering campaign ? Good grief. Did you read _any_ of this thread? The whole gay/straight thing is a sideline anyway. The man had a bizarre manic moment on national television, jumping on Oprah’s couch. He belongs to a cult whose documented actions have been actively harmful, and he has pushed their viewpoint strongly on multiple occasions. Plus there’s the question of how good an actor he is, which has also been discussed endlessly. I think there are numerous valid reasons to view him with distaste that don’t require an opinion on his sexual orientation. > [@](#): > > For the record I reckon he’s straight as a dye, though I’d bet money that theres many who wished that he wasn’t. Gaah. “Straight as a **die** ”, please. It’s a metalworking tool of some sort, I believe. ---
**Author:** ![Turek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/turek/32/18782_2.png) [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2012, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763/96 "2012-04-26T11:46:32Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > He’s a short fucker. > [@kayaker](#): > > Speaking of little, y’all realize how short he is? Gary Coleman toward over the dude. Female costars perform their parts on their knees Yeah, you’ve mentioned that twice now in this thread. We get it, you hate him because he’s short. How \*dare \*him have the audacity not to grow taller! :rolleyes: There’s plenty of reasons not to like the guy; disliking him because he’s short is absurd. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2012, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763/97 "2012-04-26T11:50:23Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I haven’t seen the movie, but are you saying that no one else spoke with a German accent either? Then I agree. Otherwise I disagree. Speaking with an accent has long been a way to distinguish that you are actually speaking the other language. It doesn’t mean it’s always used, especially in cases where no other language is ever spoken, but it is a legitimate trope. Its been a few years but I seem to remember they did the Hunt For Red October thing in which they started the movie with everyone speaking German (including Cruise) to establish the setting then slid into English for the rest of the movie. I don’t remember if any of the mostly English cast used a German accent. Only saw the movie once but I thought he did a good job at the time. ---
**Author:** ![MyFootsZZZ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/myfootszzz/32/12580_2.png) [@MyFootsZZZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MyFootsZZZ)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2012, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763/98 "2012-04-26T12:06:31Z")
I don’t hate him, but I also don’t want to see his movies anymore. It’s simply for what he said to Matt Lauer about Brooke Shields and saying their’s “no such thing as a chemical imbalance”. I think he and Mel Gibson are the only actors I boycott… I simply will not watch any of their shit, no matter how good it might be or how good they might be in it. I don’t like them and I take my business elsewhere. ---
**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 26, 2012, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763/99 "2012-04-26T12:07:01Z")
> [@Turek](#): > > Yeah, you’ve mentioned that twice now in this thread. We get it, you hate him because he’s short. How \*dare \*him have the audacity not to grow taller! :rolleyes: > > There’s plenty of reasons not to like the guy; disliking him because he’s short is absurd. Tom?:eek: ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2012, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763/100 "2012-04-26T12:14:30Z")
> [@sisu](#): > > Because he hurt our Nicole. This. Though without hurt we wouldn’t have got the line “Now I can wear heels”, which was pretty bloody good. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-hate-tom-cruise/619763.md?page=6)