Tom Cruise Once Explained Why the Oscars ‘Means Nothing to Me’
Tom Cruise has seemingly done it all over the course of his long and successful film career. The only thing Cruise hasn’t done so far is win an Oscar. But doing so might not be seen as much of an accomplishment for the respected actor.
Tom Cruise has never been interested in winning awards
Cruise has been far less concerned with bringing home awards than perhaps even his fans. The actor has been nominated for an Academy Award four times in his career. He was a Best Actor contender for films like Born on the Fourth of July and Jerry Maguire. In the year 2000, he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor thanks to his performance in Magnolia.
Most recently, Top Gun: Maverick was also up for a Best Picture award. Still, despite these nominations, Cruise has left the ceremony empty-handed every time. But that hasn’t seemed to bother him in the slightest.
“I’ve always felt what I do is extraordinary – being able to make these pictures and doing something you love. So, I’ll just keep doing it. I love it, I don’t do it for the awards,” Cruise once told BBC.
According to the Irish Examiner, there were a few people in the film industry who tried convincing him to do Oscar-bait pictures. But a potential Oscar was never an incentive to do a picture.
“I didn’t grow up watching the Oscars, so it’s never been a goal,” Cruise said. “I wanted to act. People have tried to get me to do a role by saying, ‘This is your Oscar.’ That means nothing to me.”
Why Tom Cruise decided to return his Golden Globe Awards
Cruise ended up winning Golden Globes for the same three movies that ended up earning him Oscar nominations. But Variety confirmed that Cruise returned his accolades to the Golden Globes in 2021.
This was in large part due to controversies regarding the HFPA’s lack of diversity, and their slow response to the problem. Because of this, the film industry itself was beginning to sever ties with the Golden Globes. These included studios such as Netflix and Warner Media.
Many took notice of Cruise’s example. Filmmaker Ava DuVernay posted how proud she was of the actor’s actions.
“That time that Tom Cruise sent his @goldenglobes for Jerry Maguire, Magnolia and Born on the Fourth of July in an actual box to the reception desk of HFPA to stand against their sexist, homophobic, racist practices of exclusion, harassment and bias,” she wrote.
Why didn’t Tom Cruise attend the 2023 Academy Awards?
Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick was one of the actor’s many career highlights. It was both a box-office and critical mega-hit, with Steven Spielberg even crediting the film for bringing back cinema. But although the feature was recognized by the Academy, Cruise was noticeably absent from the ceremony.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Cruise shared that he was too busy shooting the latest Mission Impossible movie. But the publication also noted that the film’s director, Christopher McQuarrie, was at the Oscars as well.
The Daily Mail claimed that Cruise’s real reason for ditching the Oscars was to avoid his ex-wife Nicole Kidman.
“Tom was not there because she was there, and he did not want a run-in,” a source allegedly told the publication.
Kidman and Cruise divorced in 2001, although the two have remained on good terms since then. Kidman even called Cruise when she won her own Oscar for playing Virginia Woolf in The Hours.
Still, the two seemed to have kept their distance in the public eye. Variety once reported that Kidman was missing in a montage dedicated to Cruise’s career at the Cannes Film Festival last year. The montage showed Cruise paired with stars like Kirsten Dunst, Penelope Cruz, Dustin Hoffman, and others. But Kidman was missing from the ceremony, despite working with the actor on three projects.
