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Tom Cruise Stunned Paul Thomas Anderson With His DIY Monologue in Magnolia
May
“What the f—?!” That’s how Paul Thomas Anderson reacted when Tom Cruise showed him a fully developed monologue and character for Magnolia—before the script was even finished.
During a recent career retrospective at the British Film Institute in London, Cruise opened up about how he helped shape his unforgettable character, Frank T.J. Mackey, the toxic self-help guru at the center of Anderson’s 1999 ensemble drama.
“The whole monologue wasn’t there at the beginning,” Cruise said. “There was just a couple sentences, and I remember being worried.”
Rather than wait, Cruise invited Anderson over under the pretense of a wardrobe fitting—and then hit him with a full theatrical performance.
“I said, ‘Just sit down right here in my screening room,’” Cruise recalled. “I lit it, I had the music, I had the big speakers, and I basically wrote and performed the opening monologue. I could see his face, he’s like, ‘What the f—?!’”
Anderson originally pictured Mackey in preppy IZOD shirts and khakis. Cruise had other ideas: slicked hair, a flashy brown velvet button-up, and a leather vest—pure late-ʼ90s macho sleaze. “I said, ‘I dunno, this is Mackey to me!’”
From that moment, the creative floodgates opened. “Every day we were writing those monologues,” Cruise said. “I just had a list of things. I do the research, I build the character—it’s instinct.”
The gamble paid off. Cruise’s performance earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor—Magnolia’s only acting nod despite a stacked cast. Anderson also received a nomination for Best Original Screenplay, and Aimee Mann’s haunting “Save Me” scored a Best Original Song nomination.
The film didn’t win any Oscars, but Cruise’s turn as Mackey remains one of the most daring performances of his career. In 2022, Entertainment Weekly ranked it just behind Born on the Fourth of July as Cruise’s all-time best work.
Sometimes, when Tom Cruise says, “Let me cook,” you just get out of the way.
