Les and Cruise

I’ve never been a bigTom Cruise fan. (okay, maybe that one scene in “Risky Business” when he pantomimes Bob Seeger) Until I saw his portrayal of the Coca-Cola-swilling, profanity master, and all around cra-cra mogul -Les Grossman in the hilarious Ben Stiller flick, “Tropic Thunder”.

In my previous post, “Favorite Actors Favorite Roles” I talked about being so immersed in an actor’s portrayal instead of thinking that’s so and so playing a fill in the blank role. In that vein, Tom Cruise blew my mind with his – take it to the max interpretation – of Les Grossman. I totally didn’t even recognize him with the makeup and his over the top performance. It was then and there I decided the only types of roles Cruise should accept are character roles. Whose with me?

Another impressive character role for Cruise was playing rock star Stacee Jaxx in the tribute film “Rock of Ages”. Again, an outstanding performance and parody of an 80’s rocker which included getting ripped and tattooed to complete the look.

The 2012 romantic musical comedy was directed by Adam Shankman and is an adaptation of the 2006 rock jukebox Broadway musical of the same name by Chris D’Arienzo.

Let’s hear it one more time for Stacee Jaxx!