Tom Cruise is frequently cited as one of Hollywood’s last remaining movie stars, with an extensive career that spans multiple decades and several successful projects within a variety of different genres. The actor first rose to fame in the 1980s with a series of teen comedies and action flicks that allowed him to easily build a name for himself and quickly climb the ranks of Hollywood before getting involved with more mainstream blockbusters in the ‘90s and ‘00s.
Cruise is known for his attempts to save Hollywood and keep the magic of filmmaking alive in the age of streaming and on-demand movies, which is a testament to just how involved he’s always been in the industry. Although he’s now known for his huge action franchises like Mission: Impossible and Top Gun, Cruise has also lent his talents to several smaller, independent movies in his younger years The actor was actually known as a comedy icon long before he was an action star, with one project in particular being responsible for propelling his career into stardom.
How Risky Business Helped Tom Cruise Become A True Movie Star
Cruise made his on-screen debut in 1981 with a romantic drama titled Endless Love, but it wasn’t until two years later that he finally got his big break and landed the main role in Paul Brickman’s Risky Business, a teen comedy that follows the sexual exploits of a high school senior when his parents go away on vacation. It was the project that really put Cruise’s name on the map for the first time, allowing him to flex his comedic talents and teenage charm to a much larger audience. The movie was a huge success upon release, grossing around $63 million across the world.
Risky Business is usually named as Cruise’s breakout role because it was the first of his projects to really achieve any success. Endless Love and Taps (his first two movies) were fairly well-liked, but their commercial performance was nowhere near as impressive as Risky Business’. He’d also starred in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Outsiders, but his role was fairly small.
Why Tom Cruise’s Risky Business Dance Is Still One Of His Most Iconic Scenes
Risky Business remains one of Tom Cruise’s best non-action movies, representing a period of cinema’s history that took itself much less seriously and wasn’t afraid to have a laugh with its audience. The iconic dance scene is a great example of this, allowing Cruise to really let loose and enjoy himself without focusing too much on the story or plot. It’s a great moment that’s cemented itself within pop culture by almost existing outside of the narrative, enjoyable even without any knowledge of what Risky Business was about. It’s the willingness to have fun and get goofy that really made audiences fall in love with Tom Cruise in Risky Business.