This interview… I’m sharing it bc I feel so much second-hand embarrassment for Tom whenever I watch it which is not often but I found it again today so I’m posting it here for… reasons. He shares this story, without hardly being prompted, about cutting off the oxygen of one of his passengers while in flight (starts at 2:32). Watching it, I just keep feeling, “Tom, no, stahp plz, oh gawds… begging you… FIRST OF ALL WHY WOULD U DO THAT?? Second of all, WHY WOULD U OFFER THAT STORY UP – I can’t even with you sometimes… You are in serious need of non-sexual corporal punishment.”
But the story is a very Lestat thing to do and it’s a very Lestatuesque way to tell it, as he’s cracking up, with what can only be described as manic laughter. He keeps hiding his face probably bc he knows he’s dug himself in too deep with this story, but he has to keep going, even though he probably knows he can only make it worse.
This interview also inspired Christian Bale with his Patrick Bateman performance in American Psycho:
“Looking for a way to create the character of Patrick Bateman, Christian Bale stumbled onto a Tom Cruise appearance on David Letterman.
According to director Mary Harron, Bale saw in Cruise "this very intense friendliness with nothing behind the eyes” and Bale subsequently based the character of Bateman on that.“
