Tom Cruise Says He Hopes to Do a Musical: ‘My Goals Are Endless’

Playing a rock star in Rock of Ages apparently didn’t satisfy Tom Cruise‘s instinct to sing onscreen. Reflecting on his career at the British Film Institute (BFI) in London last night, the actor admitted that he hopes to do a musical—or several.

“Definitely musicals,” Cruise said when asked what is still on his bucket list as a performer. “Drama, action, adventures. It’s endless. My goals are endless.”

The event, “Tom Cruise in Conversation,” was held ahead of the actor receiving the BFI Fellowship, the organization’s highest honor, this week. Cruise discussed several key moments from his career during the conversation, including his pivotal work in the Mission Impossible franchise. He explained that the original 1996 film was the first thing he officially produced and he took it on because of the “music.”

“I loved the theme music,” the actor quipped. “And I thought it would be interesting to take a Cold War TV series and turn it into action. I wanted action and suspense.” He continued, “It was about looking at Mission and going ‘What can we do with action?’ How I can evolve action and storytelling and imbue that kind of storytelling with greater amounts of motion? That is my interest.”

He also reflected on his ongoing relationship with writer and director Christopher McQuarrie, who joined the spy franchise uncredited on 2011’s Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. Cruise said he had shot three months of the film, directed by Brad Bird, but “didn’t have the story.” He met McQuarrie and invited him to the set in Vancouver, where Cruise and Simon Pegg were shooting the scene with the sticky climbing gloves.

“I already shot the action where I go on the wall,” he recalled. “We shot in Dubai. We shot most of the action sequences, except the garage scene, in Dubai. And there I am and it was like, ‘I didn’t know why I was on the side of Burj [Khalifa].’ Like, ‘We’ll figure that out later. Problems for another day!'” McQuarrie ended up coming onboard to help with rewrites and has since collaborated with Cruise more than 10 times, including on the forthcoming Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.

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The actor confirmed there will be more to come, too. “We’ve got a lot,” he said of his ideas with McQuarrie. “Our relationship is just endless stories.” He added that the filmmaker was onboard to write sequel Top Gun: Maverick more than 11 years before its release in 2022.

“Immediately, they were talking about the sequels,” Cruise noted of making the 1986 film. “And actually some of what we ended up with was an earlier idea we had… It was extraordinary doing it. The studio wanted me to make Top Gun over and over. As a young artist, I wanted to develop my talent in different areas, and I wanted to understand more and challenge myself.”

He added of filming Top Gun with director Tony Scott and Val Kilmer, “It was an exceptional experience. The actors that we got to work with. And Val coming on board. I remember with Val, we basically begged him to do it. And Anthony Edwards and Kelly [McGillis]. All of them came in. It was very, very special.”

Elsewhere during the hour-long chat, Cruise reflected on how Hollywood has changed since he got started, his desire to “create an effect on an audience,” and how his sister helped him get cast in Rain Man, which came about after a chance meeting with Dustin Hoffman in a restaurant in 1984.

“She goes, ‘There’s Dustin Hoffman.’ I looked up and there he was, in a hat—he was doing Death of a Salesman—and he was ordering takeout,” Cruise said. “She goes, ‘You go over there and say hello to him.’ I was like, ‘I’m not going to say hello.’ She goes, ‘You know him, you know his movies.’ And she doesn’t do stuff like that. And I don’t walk up to people, but she was so pushy.”

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He was ultimately convinced after his sister “pestered me so much.” “I said, ‘Excuse me, Mr. Hoffman, I’m sorry…'” the actor remembered. “And he went, ‘Cruise!’” Hoffman invited Cruise and his sister to see Death of a Salesman and brought them backstage afterwards. “As I was leaving he said, ‘I want to make a movie with you,'” Cruise said. “And I said, ‘That would be nice, sir.’ And that’s what happened, and basically a year later he sent Rain Man.”

Speaking about Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1999 film Magnolia, in which Cruise plays motivational speaker Frank T.J. Mackey, Cruise recalled that “the whole monologue wasn’t there.” After receiving the script, Cruise invited Anderson to his home screening room to showcase his take on Frank.

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“I created that whole character,” he said. “I was in my screen room. I had him there and I said, ‘Just sit down.’ I lit it. I had the whole music. I basically wrote the opening monologue, my version, and I was like, ‘Let me just show you.’ … And then what’s nice is you show them and then it evolves from there.”

Following the talk, Cruise climbed on the roof of the nearby BFI IMAX movie theater. The unexpected ascent aligned with his memory of being a kid and “always doing stunts.” He also pronounced, when told he should keep up the great work, “I’ll never stop.”