He has been through many things in life that make him today. He’s a type of man that won’t regrets about things that happen before but instead to step forward and to be better in life.
I like reading Esquire in June/July issue, where Tom Cruise opens about all his past, family and fatherhood.
On His Father
“I remember looking at my dad and wanting to understand him. I didn’t want to just write the guy off. He was lost. I can’t speak specifically in terms of why and how he got to where he was — that was his journey. All I can tell you is, he was overwhelmed by life… My mother basically did all the work, and then they got separated and I didn’t see him for a long time. He didn’t try to help the family financially or spiritually, and I lived with the effects of the chaos.”
On Forgiving His Father
“Risky Business had become a hit. I hadn’t seen my father in about ten years. I found out he was dying, and I went to see him in the hospital.
“He knew that he’d blown it. There was deep regret. I think he was torturing himself. We tend to do that. All I could do was tell him, ‘Look, it’s okay.’ I wasn’t going to live in blame and regret. I wanted to understand what happened. I wanted to understand, so I could answer the question, What can I do to make things better? I looked at my father there dying and thought, How can I not be that guy?”
On Being a Father
“I’ll never forget the moment I became a dad. But it’s hard to describe — that level of responsibility, the desire to give such joy. The clarity: Nothing is more important than this. I remember that first night, just staring at Bella. I was checking her every second, just looking at her, feeling that immediate bond. I was probably looking at her so much that I was keeping her up.
“I made a promise to her: All I can do is the best I can. But I’m not going to say I’m gonna do something and then not do it.”
On the Value of Family
“You hear about people who have lifelong friends. I never was in a place long enough to have them. So that role was filled by my family.
“If anyone was teasing my sisters, I really felt it… I’d create different characters and ad-lib sketches to make my sisters and my mother feel better. I’d try to make them laugh. I’d do Donald Duck as John Wayne. I’d watch Soul Train and imitate the dancers. I guess you can say that’s where it started. I always had a dream to be in movies, [my family] didn’t say, That’s impossible. They laughed.”
On Katie Holmes
“Because we do live in a cynical world. It’s easy to be cynical. Making the choice not to be cynical is important. You can keep dwelling on what didn’t work, or you can figure out how to fix it. Which is what being a parent is all about. You know, I’m married to such a special woman. Every night before we go to sleep, Kate and I look at each other and it’s like, How’d we do today?”
On Suri
“It’s come full circle. Now I’ll put Suri on a swing and tell her stories when I’m working on a script. I’ll start with the beginning of the movie and take her through the story beat by beat. Of course, I make it age-appropriate. She’s four years old. But she asks all the right questions: Why does that happen? Those are the bad guys? You’re the good guy, right?”
On Teaching His Children Well
“It comes down to the same thing as when I was a kid. Can I create a character that will make her happy, that will make her laugh? And you know what? She makes me get better and better, because she’s always asking me to do it again.”
Tom Cruise has three kids, Isabella, 17, and Connor, 15, with ex-wife Nicole Kidman, and Suri, 4, with Katie Holmes.
