Cameron Crowe Interviews Tom Cruise (1986). Plus: The Bear Returns, The Acolyte's Steep Bill, & More!

Issue 40: The Bear S3, 'The Acolyte' cost how much? Reality TV, and more!

Jun 25, 2024

Hi friends,

Welcome the the 40th issue of our newsletter! I hope your week is off to a great start. Last week, we just launched our Substack referral program. Refer 5 friends to our newsletter/community, and we’ll send you 3 exclusive Hi Barr bookmarks as a thank you!

Some of the movies we’ve made bookmarks from include: *Heat*, *Pulp Fiction,* *Boogie Nights*, *Point Break*, but we’ve got many more!

Made from real celluloid film, our bookmarks highlight scenes from some of our favorite movies. Pretty rad if you ask me! For our most ambitious fans, we have an awesome reward: if you refer 250 new subscribers to our newsletter/community, we’ll let you pick the topic for a future episode of our You Had To Be There podcast.1

Refer friends to Hi Barr!

In this week’s vintage interview from 1986 (below), writing prodigy and filmmaker Cameron Crowe interviews 24-year-old budding movie superstar Tom Cruise ahead of the summer release of The Color of Money. I think you’ll dig it!

Enjoy,
Web

Looking Back

Federer: Twelve Final Days (Prime Video):
- As a huge Federer fan, I thoroughly enjoyed Federer: Twelve Final Days. However, if you’re expecting a ‘Last Dance’-style documentary covering Federer’s career beat-by-beat, this isn’t that. Instead, it highlights Federer’s retirement announcement and the 12 days leading up to his final match at the 2022 Laver Cup. That said, tears were certainly shed, as predicted. Still, I’m not sure how much non-tennis or non-Federer fans will enjoy it, but I sure did.
  - Additional Reading: David Foster Wallace on Roger Federer as a Religious Experience—possibly the best piece of sports writing ever.
  - Rating (Out of 5): ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Looking Forward!

Let It Rip! The Bear Returns (Hulu | Debuts Thursday, 6/27): The third season of The Bear returns on Thursday with the kind of expectations typically reserved for restaurants after earning their first Michelin star. Following an excellent second season that included two first-ballot television Hall of Fame episodes (Fishes (S2 E6) and Forks (S2 E7)), I’m excited to see where the show goes from here. Regardless, in today’s world where many big-budget prestige shows release new seasons every other year, it’s hard not to be impressed by Storer & Co.’s annual output.
- To Binge or Not to Binge? I continue to wonder why Disney/Hulu opts to release The Bear, their biggest, most award-winning, critically acclaimed show, as an all-you-can-eat bingeable experience instead of through a traditional weekly rollout where excitement, conversation, and discourse can build. A more traditional release schedule both increases interest and discussion around the show and potentially unlocks higher advertising prices based on increased viewership later in the season. Perhaps that’s too logical?
  - For more on binging vs. weekly releases & communal viewing, here’s a short piece I wrote at the end of 2022.
How “The Real World” Created Modern Reality T V (The New Yorker): This excerpt from Emily Nussbaum’s upcoming book on the origins of reality TV: Cue the Sun!: The Invention of Reality TV makes me want to start the book now.
- Cue The Sun! comes out on June 25th. Get it here.

Odds & Ends

Moguls Talk the Future of Streaming (New York Times): John Malone, Brian Roberts, Barry Diller, and Jason Kilar discuss the future of streaming. It’s interesting how the boldest idea in the article seems like the most obvious long-term solution. Funny how that works! Of course, it comes from Jason Kilar.

Jason Kilar, the founding Hulu chief executive and former chief executive of WarnerMedia, has called for an even more radical approach than bundling: a new company that would license movies and TV shows from the major studios and pay back close to 70 percent of the revenue to those studios.
“I’ll call it the ‘Spotify for Hollywood’ path, where a large number of suppliers and studios contribute to a singular experience that delights fans. The studios would be the ones that would be taking the majority of the economic returns from such a structure.” - Jason Kilar

Where’d All the Money Go!? It’s a sign of the times at Disney/Lucasfilm when the discussion around Disney+’s newest Star Wars series, The Acolyte, goes beyond the storytelling to fans wondering how the show could possibly cost $180 million ($22.5 million per episode). Count me among the confused. Comparing The Acolyte’s per-episode budget to the Oscar-winner for special effects, Godzilla Minus One, which only cost $15 million, makes it even more baffling. Heck, House of the Dragon doesn’t even break $20 million per episode, and they’ve got dragons!

Utah! Get Me 2 3…🎧 Recommendations!

Served with Andy Roddick (Apple Podcasts | Spotify): Andy Roddick’s weekly tennis podcast is an excellent addition to the growing list of former-professional athlete podcasts (see: LeBron James + JJ Redick’s pod). Served gives both serious players & casual fans insights from one of the game’s greats, as he dissects modern tennis in a way that television analysts or even coaches can’t.
“Necessity’s a Mother Fucker ” (Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin): Longtime music executive Julie Greenwald went on Rick Rubin’s podcast to discuss the music industry in 2024, as well as her career, which included years of working for music executive icon Lyor Cohen at Def Jam. I loved hearing about how Cohen would evaluate something for Def Jam—whether it was a musician, album cover, or music video—by asking: ‘Is it good enough for the Def Jam logo’? Listen here.
“He’ll never eat lunch in this town ag ain” (The Town podcast): A worthwhile listen on Matt Belloni’s podcast with Scott Galloway, who rips Hollywood’s approach to labor, AI, and its own future.

Conversations from the Past.

The Tom Cruise Interview

INTERVIEW BY CAMERON CROWE
INTERVIEW Magazine
May 1986

CAMERON CROWE: What was your own adolescence like?
TOM CRUISE: I’ve had such extremes in my life. From being this kind of wild kid, to one year of studying to be a Franciscan priest at the seminary… I was very frustrated. I didn’t have a lot of friends. The closest people around me were my family. I think they felt a little nervous about me because I had a lot of energy and I couldn’t stick to one thing. If I worked in an ice-cream store—and I’ve worked in a lot of them—I would be the best for two weeks. Then I was always quitting or getting fired, because I was bored. I feel good about the fact that I finally found something I love. I never lived in one place for very long—that’s the way my whole life has been. I was always packing and moving around, staying in Canada, Kentucky, Jersey, St. Louis—it all helped because I was always learning new accents, experiencing different environments.

CROWE: How close did you come to being a Franciscan priest?
CRUISE: Not too close. I was there for one school session. I remember we used to sneak out of the school on weekends and go to this girl’s house in town, sit around, talk and play Spin the Bottle. I just realized I loved women too much to give that up.

CROWE: Does your rebel side ever come out in the movie-making process?
CRUISE: Like getting into a fistfight on a movie set? No. But I am very aggressive. You’ve got to be aggressive; there’s too much responsibility not to be. When you look at Taps, a lot of that character was my childhood. I wasn’t intense like that, but the character is just fear. That’s what he does when he’s afraid—he fights. I have an aggressive side, absolutely. I need a creative outlet. Now I work out every day. I get up and work out 45 to 60 minutes. And that’s how I start my day. Discipline is very important to me.

I just went to Francis and said, “Look, I don’t care which role you give me, I really want to work with you. I want to be there on the set and watch.”
- Tom Cruise

CROWE: How did you learn to deal with the constant rejection of going out on readings?
CRUISE: I felt that the people rejecting me were there to help me in the long run. Sometimes it hurts, but I truly believe that there are parts I’m supposed to get and parts I’m not supposed to get and something else is going to come along.

I remember being flown out to Los Angeles to read for a series. I didn’t know anything—I didn’t know how tough it was. I went in to read and this director was sitting there in his office—he thought he was the coolest thing happening. I read, and I knew it was terrible. And he said, “So, how long are you going to be in California?” And I’m thinking, “He’s probably going to want me to come back and read again with someone else.” I said, “Well, just a couple of days.” He said, “Good. Get a tan while you’re here.” [laughs] I couldn’t help it. I walked out, and I thought it was the funniest damn thing. Tears were coming out of my eyes, I was laughing so hard. I thought, “This is Hollywood. Welcome, Cruise.”

CROWE: How did you make the transition from Losin’ It to working with Francis Ford Coppola on The Outsiders?
CRUISE: I learned the things I wanted, and the things I didn’t want. I got a new agent and thought, “I have to work with good people and good directors and grow.” I heard about the movie, and I came out to Los Angeles and stayed at Emilio’s [Estevez] house over Christmas. And I stayed at the Penns’ house in the summer. That’s when Sean was doing Fast Times. I just went to Francis and said, “Look, I don’t care which role you give me, I really want to work with you. I want to be there on the set and watch.” And he said okay. So there I was on the set working with all these young actors. That was a hell of a good time. I just wanted a wide body of work. After Taps came out I was offered every horror film, every killer-murderer part. I told this one agent that I wanted to work with Francis. He said, “Francis! He’s not going to pay you anything!” It was never a main role, but I created something. That was where I learned I had a sense of comedy. I still want to work with Francis again.

CROWE: Whose idea was it to do the dance in your underwear?
CRUISE: Brickman’s idea. What he did was he set up the frame of the shot. He showed it to me and said, “Let’s really play it and use the whole house.” We had talked earlier and he said, “Look, I want Bob Seger’s ‘Old Time Rock & Roll’ or maybe some Elvis, but if you can come up with something else, great.” I went through tape after tape. In the end, nothing beat Bob Seger. So I took the candlestick, and I said, “How about making this the audience?” And then I just started ad-libbing, using it as a guitar, jumping on the table. I waxed half the floor and kept the other half dirty, so that I could slide in on my socks. As we went along, I threw more stuff in. Like the thing with the collar up, jumping on the bed. Originally, it was only one line in the script: “Joel dances in underwear through the house.” We shot it in half a day.

CROWE: How hard is it for you to balance your career with your relationships?
CRUISE: It’s not easy. I spent a lot of time alone. I mean, a lot of time alone. But I’ve spent time alone my whole life and it doesn’t bother me. I feel lonely at times, but I don’t want to get into a relationship with someone if it is not right. I’m not the type of person who just does things to do them. It takes time to get to know people.

CROWE: With the success of Risky Business, how quickly did you start to feel the room tip toward you when you entered it?
CRUISE: I’m really very private, in my own world. Suddenly I was someone walking on the street and people were looking at me and I was thinking, “Jesus, is something hanging out of my nose?” It took time to get adjusted to it. It was such a perfect time to do Legend in England. Everyone is looking at you and somehow just moving your hand seems so much more exaggerated.

CROWE: What’s the best way to evaluate your film performance? Some people hide in the bathroom and listen to what people say after the movie.
CRUISE: I’ve never done that. I go to rushes every night, not just to see my performance, but to see what the director’s done in terms of choosing his shots and lighting. I enjoy seeing the overall process. At times I look to see if I’m doing what I set out to do. I’m always finding out new things about what’s going on with the character. Making a movie is like a chess game. It’s about constantly changing patterns, adapting to new things. It’s not just black and white, as you know. Every day something happens and you think, “That’s terrific, let’s shift with this.” But I don’t have any specific method when a film comes out.

CROWE: Where is all this heading for you? Ultimately, are you looking for a Warren Beatty-type of situation where you can produce, direct and star?
CRUISE: I’m looking for overall growth. I need a lot of things happening in my life. I would love to direct, though I’m definitely not ready now. But I enjoy working with writers and their scripts. It’s very exciting to me. Eventually I would like to produce, direct and act onstage, but it’s not a heavy pressure. When I do it, I want to do it well. I’m just educating myself with writers and scripts, because I didn’t read a lot of books when I was growing up… I’m dyslexic, although I’m not an extreme dyslexic like my little sister was. It was just a chore. My energy was always all over the place. Reading was not at the top of my list, because it always took me so long. When I wrote a paper, my mother would help me with it. I would take a test and get very nervous. I would skip questions and skip lines. I’ve gotten better. I’ve learned to control my eyes. I used to have to use my finger all the time. I just wasn’t relaxed about it.

CROWE: How seriously do you take yourself?
CRUISE: Let’s face it, I’m not saving lives here. I feel fortunate, but this is just one aspect of my life. I love my work, but my family is very important to me, too. You pick up the paper and see that there are many things happening outside my little world.

CROWE: What is it that you bring to a performance? What do you think your specialty is?
CRUISE: I’m a good listener. I think it’s the one characteristic that’s most important. I’ve always been that way. Not that I take all the advice, but you’ve got to listen to it and have the courage to make your own decision. Then I just go for it. The important thing is to be relaxed in your work. Same in life. Don’t make everything too intense. Then you can let everything go and not “act.”