Tom Cruise's Mission Impossible Demands Make His Strangest Role Funnier
If Tom Cruise's publicized Mission: Impossible demands prove anything, it's that his bizarre Tropic Thunder role as Les Grossman is even funnier than before. Cruise's Les Grossman is the studio executive for Tropic Thunder's eponymous project who is characterized by his explosive outbursts while on the phone. By also donning a fat suit, fake large hands, bald cap, and extra-hairy chest, Cruise's Grossman has been compared to studio producers like Stuart Cornfeld and Scott Rudin. However, Tropic Thunder star and director Ben Stiller stated that Tom Cruise made Les Grossman up entirely. (via Esquire) Cruise noted that the script needed a studio representative, so working with Stiller, he created Grossman.
Like Grossman, Tom Cruise has a reputation for being demanding and hot-headed. The Mission: Impossible movies depend on Cruise, and because of that, he holds a lot of sway over the franchise and has taken advantage of this. Paramount revealed plans to make Mission: Impossible 7 available to stream only 45 days after its theatrical release, but Cruise has been fighting with the studio to keep it at the 90-day industry standard. It was also revealed that Cruise blocked Paramount's efforts to create a Mission: Impossible television show. The audacity of his demands marks his influence over Mission: Impossible, considering that he's the franchise's lead and was a producer on all six M:I installments.
Cruise has long been known to be demanding to work with, and his actions regarding Mission: Impossible's seventh installment and blocked TV series only add to the list of stories regarding his power over the franchise. Even if Mission: Impossible 8 will be Cruise's last for the franchise, his influence over it will remain strong due to the studio giving into his bold demands. In relation to his Les Grossman character, that role becomes especially meta when considering how much Tom Cruise acts like Grossman in real life, particularly toward the Mission: Impossible franchise. It's a case of life imitating art, underscored even further by his recent demands.
Because of his heavy prosthetic makeup, audiences were shocked to discover that it was Tom Cruise playing Les Grossman, an irony considering how much Cruise has sometimes exemplified Grossman's more explosive characteristics. In 2020, Cruise went on a highly publicized tirade against the crew members of Mission: Impossible 7 for disregarding the set's COVID-19 protocols. In Grossman-esque fashion, Cruise threatened to have them fired. Mission: Impossible 7, with its more dangerous stunts and pandemic obstacles, put even more pressure on the production. In addition, Mission: Impossible 7's budget of $290 million is higher than any M:I movie budget to date, adding the further need for the installment to succeed. Nonetheless, Cruise's demands for the movie play no small part in amplifying his vociferous reputation.
Cruise's Tropic Thunder character adds a necessary component to the movie's satirical Hollywood portrayal. It's no surprise that he suggested the character himself to Stiller, especially when Tom Cruise exemplifies a similarly uproarious approach to conflict. Mission: Impossible is a franchise that Tom Cruise holds a lot of control and influence over. Because his demands for the franchise are bold, and at times even combative, he is therefore in some ways a real-life representation of Les Grossman.