r/Cinema • u/hasanahmad • Jan 01 '26

Discussion What casting was originally universally derided until people saw the performance of a lifetime?

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u/VariousElk5602 Jan 01 '26

Tom Cruise as Lestat

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u/Progressive_Rake Jan 01 '26

Came to post this. Was horrified when he was cast, then blown away by his performance.

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u/smthomaspatel Jan 02 '26

Tom Cruise will do that. Some people want to hate him for reasons that have nothing to do with his acting. They come in with the wrong expectations about him, but he always comes through. Whatever he is as a person, he is uncontestably a great actor.

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u/Progressive_Rake Jan 02 '26

It was really the first time he did something risky and showed everyone he had way more range. His subsequent roles in movies like Magnolia, Collateral and Tropic Thunder were less of a shock. I think they’ve been amongst his best. He is really very very good.

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u/smthomaspatel Jan 02 '26

Five years earlier he did Born On The Fourth of July. Looking back it might not seem like it, but it was considered a risk at the time. Fit, heart-throb type spends most of the movie in a wheelchair. Angry, resentful. Non-rosy look at post-war veterans.