After flying jets, driving fast cars and riding powerful motorbikes, a hack on a horse could be thought of as a bit tame – but not if you are Tom Cruise. He loves it as much as any other way of travelling in the fast lane.

“I have always had a love of horses – well most animals really – since I was a boy, so when you look at a script and see that it involves riding it makes it all the more attractive,” says Tom. “The only problem is that sometimes it might be a year or more since being on horseback because of being so busy making other movies, that it takes a little while to remember what you are supposed to do.”

Tom never looks like he is not sure what to do. He is one of Hollywood’s greatest action men and most often does his own stunts, even on horseback.

“I’m not going to say I do everything but there is very little I don’t do,” he reveals. “I like the challenge, and also when your name is up there in big letters, I think it is only fair to do your best to live up to the expectations of people that pay to come to see you.” This approach is typical of Tom Cruise who has the reputation of being one of the nicest guys in the movie industry.

“I hope that’s true,” says Tom. “I am a relaxed kind of person. I don’t like bad manners but I like to be on good terms with people. If I am spotted in the street, I’m quite happy to have a chat, give an autograph or whatever. Being friendly costs nothing. Maybe the world could do with a little more friendliness. I have always been a fairly relaxed person, but really, what does it cost to be nice to people? Come to that, what does it cost to be nice to horses?

“I grew up in an ordinary but close family. We were not well off but I still have very happy memories of my own childhood. It was pretty noisy because I grew up with three sisters. Anyone who has grown up with more than one sister will know exactly what I mean. We didn’t have much but we never went without meals or anything like that. We had a lot of fun and fights like you do, but I think it made me grow up being aware of other people.

LIVELY HOUSEHOLD

“I have never had a problem communicating and I am sure that is because we were a lively household. In fact, you cannot grow up with three sisters and not somewhere along the line be involved with horses! So I was introduced to ponies from an early age and as well as being fun I realised that ponies could move pretty quickly when they wanted to. That’s when I first got the feel of the wind in my face and the occasional branch when the pony decided where we were going and forgot that I was on his back. I have been hooked on horses ever since.”

As well as being a nice guy, Tom also has the daredevil image and it is not always just for the big screen. “I like to do things which are exciting. That is why I got a pilot’s licence, bought my own jet to fly and learned how to handle it. I even went for weightlessness training with NASA. That was a fantastic experience and I would love to go into space. I really don’t want to pay $24 million for a holiday trip to space but I would love to go. Call it the final frontier, if you like.

“I like to fly my plane, tear around in fast cars, ride motorbikes and generally whoop it up a little. I do not see myself as a daredevil although I do like to do some of my own stunts in the movies. But I like excitement. I like to push back my own barriers sometimes. Once for fear, twice for fun – even on horseback.”

One of Tom’s most famous roles was in The Last Samurai where he had to gallop flat-out in a charge. “That was such fun,” he recalls. “I’ll admit that it was a bit nervy because the ground was pretty rough and I was aware that even the best of horses can trip sometimes. I didn’t think about wearing a parachute and there were stunt riders available, but I just had to do it myself and it was very exciting. I would put it up there with driving a fast car anytime. I was pleased with the end result on screen and glad that I hadn’t cheated and even more glad that I had survived!

PLEASURE OF HORSES

“I have ridden horses in various movies and I always take time to get to know them – that’s very important. Spending time just being with them is a real pleasure anyway and we usually talk to each other for some time and then go for a ride, nothing too energetic.”

Even if he had not been an actor and been asked to ride horses for his job, Tom believes that he would still have been a fairly regular horseman. “If acting had not turned out well for me I don’t know what else I would have done. I did think about acting or working with animals but I really wanted to be a priest at first. I had a deep sense of religion from an early age and being a priest seemed a good idea. I wanted to share my feelings with people and being a priest seemed to be the way to do that and to help people. Then at high school I got into acting and that became my focus. I was not the best academically, partly because of my dyslexia and partly because the acting took over. I dropped out and went to acting school and things gradually took off. I got an agent and here we are today.

“I have always been a sports person but a knee injury wrecked my chances in wrestling. I was on the high school team and had to quit, but I don’t think I would have had a career in wrestling. Maybe I would have been a test pilot or something like that but I have always had a love of horses so maybe I would have been a test pilot in the saddle!”

Tom obviously enjoys his career and that, in part, is because of his love of horses. “I consider myself very privileged to be an actor and to get some great parts,” Tom says. “I love action movies. I like to be in them and I like to watch them, so I have been enjoying the Mission Impossible series as well as movies like The Last Samurai. I have never taken a job purely because of the money. The payment is the bonus but I think it should be a fair bonus to add to the reward of being able to be a movie actor.

“I always loved cowboy movies when I was a kid and that had something to do with my spirit of adventure, my love of good winning over bad and, of course, horses. As I said, if I look at a script and it tells me that I have to ride a horse, I am already partly sold on the idea. I like horses over 16 hands really, but they do not always make the best movie horses, it depends upon what they have to do. Whatever, the horse needs to be a good actor. I never mind being upstaged by a horse.” EQ

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