Tom Cruise has opened his shirt for his first GQ cover in more than two decades.
The “Top Gun” star, 64, faced Mario Sorrenti’s camera with his black button-down completely unbuttoned, one hand hooked on his belt and the other running through his hair, jeans completing the look. This marks his sixth American GQ cover overall, but his first since the early 2000s.
“I’ve been busy,” Cruise joked to the magazine, when asked why he doesn’t sit down for long-form interviews very often.
The actor expanded on his creative philosophy, telling GQ, “There’s things that I want other artists to know, you know? When people see a movie, you want it to look easy … and understanding the joy that it’s ok if it hurts. That it’s hard. That it can be confusing, and you don’t know.”
For the Hollywood Boulevard shoot, the magazine dressed Cruise in Levi’s jeans, vintage tees and layered wool blazers, sending him walking among tourists in a casual, slightly rugged style that has long defined his off-screen wardrobe, occasionally punctuated by tailored suits.
Cruise is currently leaning into an entirely different aesthetic for his latest role. In “Digger,” he plays a southern oil tycoon and is reportedly totally unrecognizable.
At a press event for that film, the actor reflected on his shape-shifting career. “Whether it’s Les Grossman or ‘Interview With the Vampire,’ ‘Collateral’, or ‘Risky Business,’ I’m always asking, ‘How do I communicate this?'” Cruise shared. “The physicality, the makeup, that is stuff that you find as you are learning how to communicate.”
Despite six decades of transformation on screen, Cruise told GQ he resists nostalgia. “I look back to evaluate how I can do things better. Where I’m going, ‘What worked and what didn’t work?'” he said. “I can look back at things in a joyful way. I’m looking at history,” though he added, “I’m not someone who lives in the past … I’m more looking out. For me, I’m more in present and future.”
The GQ cover arrives as Cruise continues one of Hollywood’s longest-running leading-man careers, with the “Mission: Impossible” franchise still generating blockbusters and “Digger” poised to add another dramatic transformation to his filmography.
The magazine’s decision to shoot him among everyday tourists on Hollywood Boulevard underscored a career built on mass-market appeal, even as the actor himself spoke about the private, often painful labor behind his seemingly effortless screen presence.
Cruise’s “Digger” press obligations are expected to continue in the coming weeks as the film’s release approaches.