Director Judd Apatow had some fun at Tom Cruise’s expense when he roasted the superstar actor for his height and connection to the Church of Scientology at the Directors Guild of America Awards.
During the 55-year-old comedian’s opening monologue as the host of the DGA Awards on Saturday, Apatow joked about the “visual effects” being so good for the box-office hit “Top Gun: Maverick” that people couldn’t see just “how short” Cruise is, the Hollywood Reporter reported.
“Visual effects in [Top Gun:] Maverick were so top-notch I couldn’t even see the stack of phone books Tom Cruise sat on to reach the flight controls,” the director teased. “That’s why he’s always jumping out of tall buildings because you can’t tell how short he is from a 100-story building. That’s why when he’s standing on a wing of an airplane he’s always alone. He doesn’t want anyone there next to him for scale.”
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Judd Apatow kills as host at the #DGAAwards. No one was off limits, including the Daniels and, most notably, Tom Cruise.#EverythingEverywhereAllAtOnce pic.twitter.com/1vHNG6uqNf
— Clayton Davis – Stand with 🇺🇦 (@ByClaytonDavis) February 19, 2023
Apatow then said Tom is not fine, noting how, at the age of 60, the superstar actor seems unaware that the crazy stunts he does, like driving “a motorcycle off a cliff,” can be done with the use of something called CGI.
“Tom is not fine, something is wrong right now,” Apatow cracked. “Someone needs to explain something to him called CGI — you don’t need to do the stunts. They look exactly the same when you do them on the green screen. You’re 60, calm down.”
The monologue then slightly shifted to noting the “Top Gun” star’s well-known status as a member of the Church of Scientology.
“Every time he does one of these new stunts it does feel like an ad for Scientology, it really does,” Apatow told the audience. “I mean, is that in ‘Dianetics’ because there’s nothing about jumping off a cliff in the Torah?”
“The only thing he seems to be afraid of is co-parenting and antidepressants,” he added, as some members of the crowd audibly gasped. “Do you think if Tom Cruise took antidepressants he’d be like, ‘I’m not jumping off of a f***ing motorcycle on a cliff? Why do I even work, I’m rich.'”
Cruise and all those connected with the monster hit sequel to “Top Gun” had reason to celebrate recently after being named the Best Film of 2022 by the movie review site Rotten Tomatoes, as previously reported. The highly anticipated sequel to the 1986 movie grossed more domestically than any other movie in 2022 and was genuinely loved by critics and audience members alike.