The Tom Cruise/Les Grossman Image Dilemma

Tom Cruise is back, although the opening number of his new film might not be anything to write home about.  He’s not the Tom Cruise of old.  It’s not a return to Mission Impossible, but he is working hard on his comeback.  And this is indeed a comeback.  He never truly left, yet we have watched as he fell from the heights of box-office gold superstardom.   He’ll never get back to being the go-to, number one film star in the world, nor will having him in a film any longer guarantee a box-office smash, but that is the nature of the business and would be changing now regardless of his eccentric behavior.

Granted jumping up and down on couches or battles on national TV didn’t help.  That probably hastened his career’s transition period.  But chances are, if he continues to play with his image, as he’s now doing and focuses on building the next stage of his career, he’ll be just fine.   It’s a bit of an uphill battle, but it’s one he can win as long as he keeps his focus on the entertainment world and away from religion.

Les Grossman is an interesting approach, although I don’t think he quite had to go that far to accomplish what he was aiming for.  He could have come up with a character not quite that far gone. But it does play against his film idol image, does show he can make fun of himself and does show us a different side.  I suppose it’s all going to come down to whether that is a side we really want to see?  But in this media landscape where characters from the Jersey Shore and Prison Wives are our new celebrities Les Grossman seems to fit in quite nicely.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2010