To Tom Cruise, being away from his daughter while shooting a big-budget action movie “feels like” serving in Afghanistan.
The Top Gun actor was responding to a lawyer’s question comparing the extended time away from Suri while filming a movie to a soldier’s tour in Afghanistan, according to legal papers obtained by the Daily News.
In the deposition, the Mission: Impossible star also compared his Hollywood hamming to Olympic training.
“There is difficult physical stamina and preparation,” he whined. “Sometimes I’ve spent months, a year, and sometimes two years preparing for a single film.
“A sprinter for the Olympics, they only have to run two races a day,” he continued. “When I’m shooting, I could potentially have to run 30, 40 races a day, day after day.”
Cruise also listed off blockbusters such as Rock of Ages, Jack Reacher, Oblivion and the upcoming Edge of Tomorrow as physically and mentally taxing films for which he busted his behind.
Cruise’s lawyer said the analogies were being taken out of context.
“The assertions that Tom Cruise likened making a movie to being at war in Afghanistan is a gross distortion of the record,” lawyer Bert Fields said in a statement. “What Tom said, laughingly, was that sometimes ‘that’s what it feels like.’”
Fields continued that a video of the deposition shows Cruise and his lawyers were laughing at his answer.
When Cruise was later asked if the situations were comparable, he said, “Oh, come on.”
“Tom is a staunch supporter of our troops and would never say that making a movie was even remotely comparable to fighting in Afghanistan,” Fields added.
Also during the September 9 sitdown, Cruise was grilled on whether he or his lawyers accused Bauer Media, which publishes the two celeb magazines, of being pro-Nazi and anti-Semitic.
Cruise said he “didn’t authorize” his attorneys to make those allegations.