Tom Cruise as the foul-mouthed, Diet Coke-loving, hip-hop-dancing studio executive Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder. Screenshot via YouTube.
Legendary actor and comedic icon Ben Stiller recently sat down with Esquire for an installment of the magazine’s “Explain This“ series to discuss everything from his creative process to playing fitness-obsessed assholes and, most importantly, how Tom Cruise brought to life one of the most memorable characters he’s ever portrayed: Tropic Thunder’s hip-hop-dancing, psychopathic studio executive, Les Grossman.
“Tom Cruise had the idea to play Les Grossman in the movie. That part did not exist,” Stiller, who directed and starred in Tropic Thunder, says in the video. “He said, ‘Well, there’s no studio executive, and that would be really fun to be that guy.’ And he had this whole idea of what the guy should look like. It was his idea to dance. And I remember when we did a makeup test, someone handed him a Diet Coke, and then he just started moving.”
Stiller’s account tracks with what Cruise told BBC Radio 1 in 2017. Cruise said that, after reading the script, he felt something was missing from the film.
“There was a structural compression missing down on those characters, you know, that keeps the pressure on these guys that really drives the story,” Cruise said. “So [Stiller] came back a few weeks later, and I started reading. And I read this character, and I said, ‘Okay, this is fun. I want to play this character. I want to have fat hands, and I want to dance.”
Stiller’s discussion of the hilarious character has us hopeful that Cruise might someday reprise his role as the fat-handed, Diet Coke-drinking, maniacal executive in a stand-alone Grossman spinoff.
Read Next:
Eric Miller is a former Army Combat Medic from Parkersburg, West Virginia. He holds a bachelor’s degree in history and has worked with homeless populations and veteran services throughout the state. He is an avid outdoorsman and has recently become interested in woodworking.
For more than 150 years, the Medal of Honor has been used to recognize acts of extraordinary battlefield courage performed in service to the United States.
Medical oversight and care were “poorly organized, poorly integrated and poorly led and put candidat...
Memorial Day was created as a remembrance to honor the fallen by decorating graves — a holiday meant...
The Air Force fighter pilot about to be nominated as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ...
In an effort to continue Black Rifle Coffee Company’s mission of supporting the veteran community, B...
Black Rifle Coffee Company will honor Marine Gunnery Sgt. Joseph Menusa during NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 this Memorial Day. Menusa was killed in 2003 during the invasion of Iraq.
The nuclear-powered ship USS Gerald R. Ford entered the Oslo fjord escorted by a rapid dinghy-type boat with armed personnel on board.
Two-time Academy Award nominee Adam Driver, who will soon be starring as Enzo Ferrari in a biopic of...