Read Online Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography by Andrew Morton - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Andrew Morton
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spoiled by the shaping and molding of an acting studio. It was a view shared by his friend Lorraine Gauli, who recognized, albeit reluctantly, that his raw ability and passion far outstripped her own theatrical talent. When he came to her house one day to practice a scene from David Mamet’s play
American Buffalo
, she was struck by how natural and instinctive was his acting. “This kid was innately good. He didn’t need any method or training,” she recalls. In fact, he was highly critical of her own decision to take the conventional route and sign up for a three-year course at a New York acting school. He felt she should follow his lead and audition for stage and screen roles immediately. The single-minded young man believed he could pick up acting experience on the hoof.
Even those friends who did not have a background in drama could see the talent bursting forth. One weekend back in Glen Ridge, he stood with his friend Vinnie Travisano in the hallway of his family home, trading lines from the 1980 hit movie
Raging Bull.
“He got so emotional and into the moment, you could see that this was his calling,” recalled Vinnie. “It was amazing.”
Having given himself ten years to become king of the acting jungle, he was already making a noise in that wild worldwithin ten weeks. “From the minute he started to audition he was a hit,” Tobe Gibson recalls. He snagged a part in a commercial for Hershey’s chocolate and received callbacks for several other TV commercials. Intense and dedicated, he explored every avenue to gain an advantage over all the other hopefuls in search of stardom. For a time he took guitar lessons from Laura Davies, a Glen Ridge High School musician, to give him a better chance of snagging a part in a TV version of the hit movie
Fame
. The show’s producers were holding auditions in Hollywood, and Tobe managed to get Tom’s name added to a very long list of hopefuls. Somehow he scraped the money together for the flight from New York to Los Angeles, packed a bag, and embarked on a journey that gave him the opportunity to experience firsthand the indifferent, offhanded reality of the industry he was determined to conquer.
The experience left the East Coast boy somewhat perplexed. He arrived at the director’s office and proceeded to give, as he later recalled, a “terrible” reading. When the director asked him how long he intended to stay in town, the young actor, thinking he might get called back to read again, said that he was there for a couple of days. “Good, get a tan while you’re here,” came the reply, and he was promptly shown the door. As he later recalled: “I walked out and thought it was the funniest thing. Tears were coming out of my eyes. I was laughing so hard, I thought, ‘This is Hollywood. Welcome, Cruise.’ ” Given his raw ambition and intense, rather humorless character, it is hard to reconcile his later glib recollection with the likely reality: all those days of hopeful guitar practice and rehearsals dashed in an unforgiving minute.
Certainly one person who wasn’t laughing was his girlfriend, Diane Van Zoeren, who phoned him for two days straight without any response. She only later discovered that he had teamed up with a couple of other acting hopefuls and spent forty-eight hours trying his luck at the gaming tables of Las Vegas.
While he hadn’t made the grade for the
Fame
TV show, Tobe secured him an audition for a walk-on role in
Endless
Love,
a story of teenage passion and obsession starring Brooke Shields. Tobe had to use all her negotiating skills to get him in to see the director, Franco Zeffirelli. The film’s casting agent, Sally Dennison, wanted a taller, slimmer character for the part of a high-school football player, but Tobe convinced her at least to look at her protégé, who she admitted had the look of a stocky wrestler.
Before he left for the audition, Tobe reminded him of the golden rules for a young actor. At the first meeting,
American Buffalo
, she was struck by how natural and instinctive was his acting. “This kid was innately good. He didn’t need any method or training,” she recalls. In fact, he was highly critical of her own decision to take the conventional route and sign up for a three-year course at a New York acting school. He felt she should follow his lead and audition for stage and screen roles immediately. The single-minded young man believed he could pick up acting experience on the hoof.
Even those friends who did not have a background in drama could see the talent bursting forth. One weekend back in Glen Ridge, he stood with his friend Vinnie Travisano in the hallway of his family home, trading lines from the 1980 hit movie
Raging Bull.
“He got so emotional and into the moment, you could see that this was his calling,” recalled Vinnie. “It was amazing.”
Having given himself ten years to become king of the acting jungle, he was already making a noise in that wild worldwithin ten weeks. “From the minute he started to audition he was a hit,” Tobe Gibson recalls. He snagged a part in a commercial for Hershey’s chocolate and received callbacks for several other TV commercials. Intense and dedicated, he explored every avenue to gain an advantage over all the other hopefuls in search of stardom. For a time he took guitar lessons from Laura Davies, a Glen Ridge High School musician, to give him a better chance of snagging a part in a TV version of the hit movie
Fame
. The show’s producers were holding auditions in Hollywood, and Tobe managed to get Tom’s name added to a very long list of hopefuls. Somehow he scraped the money together for the flight from New York to Los Angeles, packed a bag, and embarked on a journey that gave him the opportunity to experience firsthand the indifferent, offhanded reality of the industry he was determined to conquer.
The experience left the East Coast boy somewhat perplexed. He arrived at the director’s office and proceeded to give, as he later recalled, a “terrible” reading. When the director asked him how long he intended to stay in town, the young actor, thinking he might get called back to read again, said that he was there for a couple of days. “Good, get a tan while you’re here,” came the reply, and he was promptly shown the door. As he later recalled: “I walked out and thought it was the funniest thing. Tears were coming out of my eyes. I was laughing so hard, I thought, ‘This is Hollywood. Welcome, Cruise.’ ” Given his raw ambition and intense, rather humorless character, it is hard to reconcile his later glib recollection with the likely reality: all those days of hopeful guitar practice and rehearsals dashed in an unforgiving minute.
Certainly one person who wasn’t laughing was his girlfriend, Diane Van Zoeren, who phoned him for two days straight without any response. She only later discovered that he had teamed up with a couple of other acting hopefuls and spent forty-eight hours trying his luck at the gaming tables of Las Vegas.
While he hadn’t made the grade for the
Fame
TV show, Tobe secured him an audition for a walk-on role in
Endless
Love,
a story of teenage passion and obsession starring Brooke Shields. Tobe had to use all her negotiating skills to get him in to see the director, Franco Zeffirelli. The film’s casting agent, Sally Dennison, wanted a taller, slimmer character for the part of a high-school football player, but Tobe convinced her at least to look at her protégé, who she admitted had the look of a stocky wrestler.
Before he left for the audition, Tobe reminded him of the golden rules for a young actor. At the first meeting,
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