Tom Cruise Says He Was Cast in ‘Rain Man’ After His Sister Forced Him to Go Up to Dustin Hoffman at a Restaurant: ‘As I Was Leaving He Said, “I Want to Make a Movie With You”’

https://variety.com/2025/film/global/tom-cruise-cast-rain-man-sister-forced-dustin-hoffman-meeting-1236392007/

8 comments

  1. > “She goes, ‘There’s Dustin Hoffman.’ I looked up and there he was, in a hat, and he was ordering takeout,” Cruise recalled. “She goes, ‘You go over there and say hello to him.’ I was like, ‘I’m not going to say hello.’ She goes, ‘You know him, you know his movies.’ And she doesn’t do stuff like that. And I don’t walk up to people, but she was so pushy.”

    > Eventually, Cruise said his sister gave him an ultimatum: “If you don’t do it, I’m just going to go over there and tell him who you are.” Cruise responded: “He’s not going to know who I am, that’s going to be really humiliating!” Cass eventually “pestered me so much,” Cruise recalled, that he gave in. “I said, ‘Excuse me, Mr. Hoffman, I’m sorry…’ And he went, ‘Cruise!’”

    > Hoffman ended up offering Cruise and his sister tickets to “Death of a Salesman” and invited them backstage after the show. “As I was leaving he said, ‘I want to make a movie with you.’ And I said, ‘That would be nice, sir,’” Cruise said, laughing at the memory. “And that’s what happened, and basically a year later he sent ‘Rain Man.’”

  2. What a great story. I love that Tom is talking more about his history and film in general. It’s fascinating. He clearly loves the art form so much.

  3. Cruise, not Dustin Hoffman, should have won the Oscar for Rain Man.

  4. I think it’s funny that Tom Cruise would assume that Hoffman had never heard of him after starring in a few movies like, oh, I don’t know; Top Gun, The Color of Money, Risky Business, and the Outsiders.

    Wasn’t exactly an unknown. Those were Oscar award winning movies.

  5. I mean he’s Mr. Movie Star, cool to finally hear more about his life outside of Scientology lol

  6. He was SO GREAT in Rain Man, he really deserved an Oscar for that

  8. This story is fascinating. This is a great fucking story.

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