Why Did Tom Cruise Refuse The Iron Man Role?

Can you imagine Top Gun or the Mission Impossible Franchise minus Tom Cruise? Tom Cruise is always on the cruise mode, isn’t he? An unstoppable surface-to-air-missile personality, if there’s an actor who’s incredibly active for his movie roles and can literally climb mountains, scale on top of a bullet train, can dive deep into the ocean and hang out on the tallest building known to mankind in the firmament of modern architecture then it’s him Tom Cruise, no one else. A product of maniacal energy, Tom Cruise can drive audiences nuts with the kind of unforeseeable things he can carry out, with sheer self-belief. Perhaps, not wrong to say, he’s the alternate name for bravado!

At his age, and let’s not forget the Syracuse-born is already in his mid-fifties, the kind of stunts that Tom Cruise is still pulling off should actually warrant him to receive an award such as the Academy Award for sheer will-power. Lest we forget, Hollywood hasn’t still created uncanny decorations like these.

That being said, let’s not forget, when no other Hollywood star had the courage or showed the desire to step inside a Formula 1 car, Tom Cruise did, way back in the 2012-13 season when he test drove a Red Bull call in Texas.

So it really was no surprise that the daredevil actor known for charming good looks was also offered the Iron Man role, a movie part, which has now become synonymous with none other than Robert Downy Jr. Yet, a question still remains- why did Tom Cruise say no to a rather popular Marvel character that, even today, is revered and seen as a subject of immense entertainment?

As a matter of fact, Tom Cruise had revealed that he had already said no to the famous Tony Stark character. So let’s understand what made the legendary Hollywood icon say no to the famous film part?

The following inputs came to life thanks to a story published in an Indian publication:

Marvel Studios was instead keen on casting Cruise for the part. Cruise had confirmed that there were talks about playing iron Man, “It’s not happening. Not with me, no … They came to me at a certain point and, when I do something, I wanna do it right. If I commit to something, it has to be done in a way that I know it’s gonna be something special. And as it was lining up, it just didn’t feel to me like it was gonna work. I need to be able to make decisions and make the film as great as it can be, and it just didn’t go down that road that way.” He also added that Robert Downey Jr was great for the role and he couldn’t imagine anyone else bringing the character to life.

Also Read – When James Bond Auditioned For Rang De Basanti! Daniel Craig Met RDB Filmmaker?

Robert Downey Jr’s path to getting the role was far from easy, however. His past was bogged down with drugs and alcohol issues and Marvel was adamant to not hire him. Yet, director Jon Favreau fought tooth and nail for him to don the suit.

The above told, let’s not forget that Tom Cruise, back in the 2000s brought far more bankability and resilience to a movie character than Robert Downy Jr. did. But as they say, some things are just down to destiny and how luck or fate would have it. Today, one cannot imagine anyone else being the famous Iron Man- isn’t it?