Tom Cruise tells Oprah he wants more challenges

05/05/2008 23:28

By Andrew Stern

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Hollywood’s stars paid tribute to Tom Cruise on Monday’s Oprah Winfrey television show, with the actor saying he hoped for more challenging roles and to work with the likes of Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro.

In the second of two interviews with Cruise, Winfrey aired highlights since the actor’s breakthrough role 25 years in 1983’s "Risky Business," including a seemingly death-defying stunt from "Mission: Impossible 2" in which a bare-chested Cruise leaps across a rocky cliff.

Cruise said he dangled from a thin wire during four days of shooting the scene.

The movie clips were interspersed with videotaped congratulations from a long lineup of celebrity friends and co-stars, including actors Will Smith, Dustin Hoffman, and Renee Zellweger, director Steven Spielberg, soccer player David Beckham and his wife, Victoria.

Cruise repaid the compliments in full, saying he hoped to work with "so many" other actors, among them Pacino and De Niro.

"I’m actually surprised how much I’ve accomplished," the 45-year-old actor said, responding to an audience member’s question about whether he had done everything he set out to do.

"I feel really privileged to do what I do, and I thank you for allowing me to entertain you," he said. "As you go .....continued below

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along, you think, ’how can I keep challenging myself even more?’

"I feel at home on that movie set. A lot of times I show up before the crew. And I feel this is what I’m supposed to do."

"You love it," Winfrey said.

"I love it," Cruise agreed.

Winfrey, whose syndicated show is seen by millions worldwide, aired the first half of her interview with Cruise at the actor’s Telluride, Colorado, home on Friday, when he dismissed rumours of marital problems with his wife, actress Katie Holmes.

On Monday, Cruise noted with an uncomprehending shrug that their daughter Suri, 3, calls him "Dadda Cruise."

Winfrey promised each member of her Chicago audience DVD copies of 25 of Cruise’s movie hits, among them "Top Gun," "Born on the Fourth of July," and "War of the Worlds."

In his tribute, Hoffman, slurping spoonfuls from a bowl alongside a cardboard cut-out of Cruise at his breakfast table, joked that the two played brothers in 1988’s "Rain Man" but since then, "haven’t really connected.

"I hope you understand I’ve had to learn to cope," he said, spooning cereal for the fake Cruise.

Hoffman recalled a scene in "Rain Man" the two shot in a sweltering telephone booth during which he accidentally passed gas and then blocked the door, triggering an improvised scene.

"That was the favourite scene I’ve ever done. That includes Shakespeare," Hoffman said.

"With Dustin, you just go," Cruise said when asked about it.

Reuters/Nielsen

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