Tom Cruise is no stranger to putting his body on the line for the sake of the movie he's in. Cruise loves doing his own stunts, having no problem flying in fighter jets for Top Gun: Maverick or driving a motorcycle off of a ramp for Mission Impossible 7. Most impressive, however, might be Tom Cruise having to eat a ridiculous amount of chocolate cake while shooting The Outsiders.
Tom Cruise recently shared a story about Paul Newman showing him the ropes and giving him some sage advice about the weather in Chicago. Cruise then remarked on a funny story about working with Francis Ford Coppola on The Outsiders, during which he had to eat chocolate cake for three days, saying:
I was working with [Francis Ford] Coppola, and I was like, ‘You know what, I’m going to eat chocolate cake in the scene.’… I had to do it in the scene, it's part of the character, I'm going to eat chocolate cake. We ended up shooting this scene for three days, and we did like 100 takes of me eating chocolate cake, and I had to keep eating it.
Tom Cruise had confidence in his ability to eat chocolate cake and stay true to the character, thinking, “How bad could it be?” Cruise thought since he liked chocolate cake, it wouldn’t be that big of a deal to eat it for the scene in question, but he didn’t expect to have to eat it for three whole days. This was an important and hilarious lesson for the actor to learn. During the same interview on The Graham Norton Show, the actor went on to explain that he became sick from having so much cake:
It’s like the first couple of takes, I was like, ‘Oh, this is so good, I have to eat it. It was so moist.' And then it was like, 'Oh my gosh, did we get it?' Three days of Francis [Ford Coppola] saying: 'Let's do it again.' I was in sugar shock, I was vomiting.
It must have been something to watch Tom Cruise day after day forcing himself to take another bite of chocolate cake, probably as thrilling as watching him perform the insane stunts he does today. Cruise is known for his frantic running in his films and his dedication to making his movies seem as authentic as possible. It’s hilarious to think that eating chocolate cake is one of the hardest things he's ever had to endure whiile making movies.
Mission: Impossible 7 has been delayed to May 2022, and production is still underway for it and Mission: Impossible 8. But Tom Cruise is undoubtedly up to whatever obstacles he faces on screen and in production, and fans are waiting patiently to see what he does in the next installments of his iconic, action franchise.
