Tom Cruise's Heated Interview With Matt Lauer | Archives | TODAY

Tom Cruise it's been a pretty busy couple of weeks for the movie star his relationship with Katie Holmes spawning a thousand tabloid headlines he came here to our studio on Thursday for a freewheeling discussion in the first part of our interview we talked about his new love and his new movie as his fiancee looked on anything at all interesting happening in your life these days yeah you know same old same old you know what Sam oh you know what how are you handling this I mean every magazine every newspaper every entertainment show what's it like for you to be to let me be living through this right now I have to tell you it's it's just a great time in my life I'm really happy I'm engaged I'm gonna be married and I can't restrain myself I was thinking about it won the one hand it's got to be a little hard to see yourself everywhere splashed across the pages another aspect of this though is how many actors 20 something years into a career can generate this kind of interest still you know I just do what I do I love making movies and I feel privileged to be able to do that always and it's something that I'm just living my life we talk about life in a second let's talk about the movie though okay war the world to me I've always been fascinated by this whole concept that we are not alone in a big way in concept do you remember your first exposure to it to the story I remember I was a kid and I heard about the Orson Welles radio play was my first exposure to this story this is not just an alien movie this story breaks down on a lot of different levels and in one of the levels your character is a father not the best father in the world when we were working on on the story originally three years ago Steve and I came up with this idea of making it about a family okay wanna go inside okay want to go inside okay you go ahead I want to go by myself and so now he is forced in these circumstances to rise to the occasion the fourth of July and I just think it's a it's very human I think that you know your father sure I'm a father you know I always wanted to be a father you don't remember we first held your child's like tremendous sense of responsibility life-changing yeah and we talked about it but it you know and I even you know not until you experience it can you really know it and so that that's why I wanted i wanted to imbue this story with that journey is this a scary movie in the traditional sense of Hollywood scary I think it's in de in Spielberg in scary it's out now is yeah I think you know you you Stevens movies they're films that I tease him because I say you know I know your movies better than you you know because I know I've studied his edits so many times I've studied his movies for Steven it's not analytical he's just creating and he has a tremendous power because he understands the medium and it's just that great great great storyteller I think he's the greatest storyteller cinema has ever known let's talk about selling this movie so you've just toured basically around the world getting the story of War of the Worlds out there and at the same time you've got this great thing happening in your personal life that has become the subject of so many headlines and and stories any fear is it really yeah from what I've seen you want to count three thousand four hundred and is there any made that up is there any fear in your part that what happens personally overshadows the movie not never does what's you know I hope the movie I don't know you know what it's it's it comes down to the movie it always comes down to you aren't being so much more open you've been on this show in the past at times where you were in other relationships and I kind of broached the subject of a personal life and you would very gingerly steer it away that was how we came to know Tom Cruise and now you're saying you know what I'm okay with it so it is a it does seem like a different guy yeah but it's still there still writing it gigant understand all that stuff we stayed still write it they'd still talk about it and and the thing is is that I still feel that I always feel I will talk about what I feel what I want to talk about right and I won't talk about what I don't want to talk about and it just doesn't matter it comes down to the movie you know and I also feel mad I'm living my life and and and I feel and I feel fortunate you know I feel really fortunate and I'm excited said something that made me think about something and if you get out there and talk about it it kind of takes away a lot of their power to make stuff up doesn't it because you're telling the real story where does it leave them to go yeah but here's the point it's I don't even get into that game I'm just living my life man it's not it's something that I just live in my life and and I'm doing the best that I can and doing it in a way that I feel is right and I think that when I like hearing good news you know I like hearing you know if something good happens to you it's nice I like sitting here talking you I mean before and we're you know you're you know it's it's I like hearing good news from people and it's something that I'm happy so if you like hearing it you must want to share it too yeah and you know what and I think it's I so when you hear the cynics mr. Cruz and you've heard them who say this is publicity for a movie this relationship or this is Tom Cruise and is in his 40s trying to become or stay relevant for a younger audience and that's why he's out there talking about this relationship with this lovely young lady who happens to be sitting right over there how do you respond to that you know what there's always cynics there's there's always has been there always will be do you laugh about it just bug you know you gotta just I I have never worried Matt about what other people think and what other people say Katie close your ears for a second okay you you have said that Katie is the real thing she is sensational she's magnificent can you explain to me what she's brought to your life that hasn't been brought to your life in the past I don't want to compare things I just say oh yeah oh you don't know no because you know it but what it is it's that thing where you just in life when it just happens right you know it's just you meet someone and it's I can't even describe it Katie has mentioned that she is embracing or at least exposing herself and opening herself up to Scientology at this stage in your life could you be with someone who doesn't have an interest you know Scientology is something that you don't understand it's like you could be a Christian and be a Scientologist okay Scientology something doesn't replace religion and it is a religion because it's dealing with with with this the spirit you know you as a spiritual being and it's something that there's tools that you have that I can actually that you apply to your life coming up the mood changes a bit you're gonna see a fiery Tom Cruise talk about his attack on Brooke Shields antidepressants and Ritalin for kids here's a sneak peak it's very impressive to listen to you because clearly you've done the homework and and you know the subject and you should and you should do that also because just knowing people who are on riddlin isn't enough you should be a little bit more responsible in knowing I'm really describing Ritalin Tom and I'm not it gets a little testy and you'll see that coming up in our next half hour and the tone of the discussion took a turn I've never agreed with psychiatry ever before I was a Scientologist I never agreed with psychiatry and then when I started studying the history of psychiatry I started realizing more and more why I didn't agree with psychiatry and as far as the Brooke Shields thing is look you gotta understand I really care about Brooke Shields I I think here's a wonderful and talented woman and I want to see her do well and I know that psychiatry is is a pseudoscience but um if she said that this particular thing helped her feel better whether it was the antidepressant or going to a counselor or a psychiatrist isn't that enough Matt you have to understand this here we are today where I talk out against drugs and psychiatric abuses of electric shocking people okay against their will of drugging children with them not knowing the effects of these drugs do you know what adderall is do you know riddlin do you know now that ritalin is a street drug do you understand that the difference is this was not a male though madam this was an advancing your question madam asking a question I understand there's abuse of all of these now you see here's the problem you don't know the history of psychiatry I do aren't there examples and might not Brooke Shields be an example of someone who benefited from one of those drugs all it does is mask the problem Matt and if you understand the history of it it masks the problem that's what it does that's all it does you're not getting to the reason why there is no such thing as a chemical imbalance so it was part of depression to you is in that kind of a psychological Google godly goop no no I did not say I'm just asking what you know would you know all apps that Matt that is that posted now now you're talking about two different things that's what she went on the on a depressant for but what happens the antidepressant all it does is mask the problem there's ways of vitamins and through exercise and various things I'm not saying that that isn't real that's not what I'm saying that's an alteration of what what I'm saying I'm saying that drugs aren't the answer that these these drugs are very dangerous they're mind-altering anti-psychotic drugs and there are ways of doing it without that so that we don't end up in a brave new world the thing that I'm saying about Brooke is that there's misinformation okay and she doesn't understand the history of psychiatry she doesn't understand in the same way that you don't understand it man but a little bit what you're saying tom is you say you want people to do well but you want them to do well by taking the road that you approve of as opposed to a road that may work for them no I'm not well if anti depressants work for Brooke Shields why isn't that okay i I disagree with it and I think that there's a higher and better quality of life and I think that promoting for me personally so you're saying what I can't discuss what I wanted to show you absolutely I know Ben but Matt you're going in and saying that that I can't discuss I'm only asking isn't there a possibility that do you examine the possibility that these things do work for some people that yes there are abuses and yes maybe they've gone too far in certain areas maybe there are too many kids on ritalin maybe electric shock your kids on ritalin I'm just saying but but aren't there examples where it works you don't even you're Glenn you don't even know what reeling is if you start talking about chemical imbalance you have to evaluate and read the research papers on how they came up with these theories Matt okay that's what I've done then you go and you say where's that where's the medical test where's the blood test that says how much ritalin you supposed to get your it's very impressive to listen to you because clearly you've done the homework and and you know the subject and you should and you should do that also because just knowing people who are on riddlin isn't enough you should be a little bit more responsible in knowing I'm really describing Ritalin Tom and I'm not telling anyone else to do are you saying nightmares some people who seem to have been helped by it but you're saying but it's this is a very important issue Isis very well you know it and you're you're here on the Today Show right and to talk about it in a way of saying well isn't it okay and being reasonable about it when you don't know and I do I think that you should be a little bit more responsible in knowing what it is like because you could you communicate to people but you're now telling me that your experiences with the people I know which are zero are more important than my experiences what do you mean by that you're telling me what's worked for people I know or hasn't worked for people or I know and I'm telling you I've lived with these people and they're better so you're you're advocating it I am NOT I'm telling you in their case like what's in their individual case it worked I am NOT gonna go out and I get your kids on ritalin it's the cure-all man in the end I have but here's the point what is an ideal scene in life okay ideal scene is someone not having to take antipsychotic drugs I would agree okay so now you look at you go okay a departure from that ideal scene is someone taking drugs okay and then you go okay what is the theory in the science behind that that justifies that let me take this more general because I think you and I could go around in circles on this for a while and and I respect your opinion on it do you want more people to understand Scientology is that would that be a goal of yours you know what I absolutely you know you go about that you just communicate about it and the important thing is like you and I talk about it whether it's look if I want to know something I go and find out because I don't talk about things that I don't understand I'll say you know what I'm not so sure about that I'll go find more information about it so I can I can come to an opinion based on on the information that I have

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Views: 9,075,881

Rating: 4.3935447 out of 5

Keywords: The Today Show (tv program), Today, NBC, Today on NBC, Rockefeller Center, Morning Show, Today Show Guest, Tom Cruise, tom cruise interview, Scientology, Katie Holmes, drugs, tom cruise mat lauer interview, tom cruise today show, matt lauer, tom cruise crazy interview, tom cruise mental health

Id: tFgF1JPNR5E

Length: 13min 56sec (836 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 02 2014

Reddit Comments

[u/hornwalker]

I wonder how he responds to the millions of people who suffer from Schizophrenia or other debilitating mental illnesses, who need medication to function.