Name: Tom Cruise Talks "Top Gun," Paul Newman And Race Cars | Letterman
Uploaded: 2023-01-23T16:00:48.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Tom Cruise Talks "Top Gun," Paul Newman And Race Cars | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-01-23. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Tom Cruise Talks "Top Gun," Paul Newman And Race Cars | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-01-23. Transcript available.

our first guest is a talented actor whose films include top gun the color of
money we're not
kidding around here i know now they're just sighing they're sighing inside i
know it stinks doesn't
it as you're introducing the hallways are teeming with babes listen they're sighing
i know sighing
whimpering there's a couple well i'm telling you that's two more than are
normally out there
any other night nothing uh anyway has been in these motion pictures top gun the
color of money
and the current cocktail ladies and gentlemen please welcome tom cruise
now that must be very pleasant to hear it was better than booze yeah yeah uh
let's talk a little
bit about your automobile racing career first you're a race fan well yeah you
can't you really can't grow
up in indianapolis and not sort of be fond of automobile racing so how did how
did you get into
it how far into it are you and are you serious about it yeah i love racing uh i've
always loved cars and
racing and uh watched on television growing up yeah worked with uh newman on
color of money
now when you say newman would that be paul newman paul newman paul newman yeah
uh and
that's all we talked about cars and a lot of the time in between you know
working his his story is
very interesting because he didn't start until he was older than probably you
would think it would
be a good idea to get in years old no he was older than was he really well i
don't know maybe you would
know more yeah maybe older maybe you know more than no growing up in indianapolis
uh so anyway you went
to him and you said i'm interested in becoming uh more involved in this or what
yeah i just said you
know uh actually he offered and i said you know i mean that'd be terrific so we
went out to a quarter
mile track and uh he knows a lot of people in racing they brought some cars up
and we just drove around
the quarter mile track and he said you ought to try it out so i drive a gt3 car
for his race team now
what does that mean when you say gt3 what what is that exactly well uh it's
like uh there's gt1 gt2
gt4 thank you for putting it in terms that the layman can understand tom uh but
is it i mean is it a car
that we would say oh that looks like a dachshund or a nissan or does that i
mean there's uh well i
race nissan but it looks like you know the winston cup cars it's not an indy it's
not an open wheel
car this is this is a modified production car sort of i see so it looks a
little like a car you could buy
but it's been heated up yes and how fast will these things go uh this one will
go about 150 miles an
hour and have you driven it that fast no not yet yeah what's what's the fastest
you've traveled in
in competition at pocono a couple weeks ago was i probably got about 145 146.
now uh what was your
first race like i was scared to death yeah i thought i was gonna die yeah well
yeah you go into the corners
and you think yeah you just uh but it's really exciting yeah no high speed
chess game uh what what
do you know about driving a car that the average person doesn't know uh i mean
you know weight
distribution uh understanding you know oversteer understeer what happens in the
rain why you know
why a car does what it does how to take a corner and dodge the police officer
you know yeah do you maybe
i have this trouble whenever i drive cross-country a lot of times the radio
will fade you're right
you know i uh the stations don't they seem to really um silly now you and paul
luman are good
friends aren't you yeah he's good yeah and and you you knew him i guess before
you did the color of
money yes i uh uh auditioned for harry and son and met him then and then he
called me he and scorsese
called me for color of money yeah and what kind of a man is he to to work with
and then to be friends
with very generous uh just a great actor and a generous person yeah did was
there a period uh
uh that you couldn't stop saying to yourself oh my god it's paul newman yeah at
first you feel
that way i mean the same with uh scorsese and you know you work with hoffman
but i think hoffman
when you know when you say hoffman dustin hoffman oh of course dustin hoffman
yeah i should have just
dustin yeah dustin we would have known hoffman could have been abby hoffman we're
not sure
seems like a long shot but it could have been abby hoffman uh but if it were me
i don't think
that i would uh ever just get comfortable being with him as i would any other
he makes you feel
comfortable uh we spend you know a lot of time together a month uh you know two
months before
we started shooting the picture and he just takes a lot of time and yeah does
it bother him that that
you carried him in that movie what's that
it's just a joke
now when you when you race you actually compete is it the sports car club of
america this gt3 series
secca yeah now when when you go to one of these events do the other guys who
are racing in the
series do they think ah mr big shot mr movie star tap city do you get along all
right with these
guys oh yeah but they i mean they definitely uh you know i think they get a
certain pleasure out
of beating me or racing with me it's uh ups the stakes a bit it's a very
frustrating sport because
you can be successful and race year after year with not many victories can't
you yeah yeah i mean i i
haven't won a race yet but i took second at pocono and uh we got a great car
this year and a great crew
and see to me that's phenomenal that you've been doing this what i guess less
than a year maybe a
year and a half i mean this is it was my it was actually the first race in my gt3
car and i just
i'd finished rain man and i missed a day of qualifying so i just had two
qualifying sessions and when you
mentioned rain man that's the movie you're doing with uh hoffman that's right
uh what did you do as a
kid uh what kind of jobs did you have where where are you from originally chicago
that area no i uh
traveled all around lived in jersey a couple of times louisville kentucky uh
and some people from jersey
out there and uh denver he's not from denver leave him alone did he he didn't
say denver
uh and before you started acting what kind of things did you do i went to
school yeah just uh
high school i just finished high school and moved to new york yeah uh and you
had odd jobs when you
were here yeah i uh unloaded trucks bus tables did anything i could yeah how
long did that last before
you started achieving success about a year yeah and i studied neighborhood playhouse
and
it took me about a year before i started really working so this is this has
really been a fairly
quick trip hasn't it yeah yeah been seven eight years well that's pretty good
we we have uh some
footage here from the new motion picture is that right this is called cocktail
tell the folks what
we're about to see here uh which one is it i don't even know which one is i
think it's uh before
uh my first job is uh tending bar okay and i've just told uh brian brown that
uh i know how to tend
bar and uh and i'm very good at it so okay here we go it's in color yeah i
think okay here we go
have you ever attended bar yes a couple of times i interviewed about 35 bartenders
getting ready for
this and went to a couple of places in new york yeah jersey attending bar and
they actually turned you
loose behind a bar turned me loose now did you uh know anything about it was
like that that scene right
there and did people say oh look tom cruise's tending bar or did well i think
at first it was pretty
late i waited uh till about midnight so they were pretty much in their cup by
then and uh it was a
lot like hey you look like but nah and uh and uh then they recognized and just
kind of went along with
it it was a lot of fun and what what do people seem to be drinking these days
well at this place uh there
was uh blue whales and uh you know the orgasm and uh these are drinks these are
drinks
and what what is i know i know what an orgasm is but what is it
i've heard about them
um but what what is a blue whale uh what is a blue whale it's uh vodka
some just blue coloring and vodka paint paint essentially yes great fruit and
they stick a whale
in there now do you do you enjoy doing that kind of stuff do you enjoy doing
research or background
for a film it's one of the best parts really yeah well what kind of stuff did
you have to do for top
gun did you actually do any pre-flying stuff with the blue angels uh in a ta4
subsonic uh single engine
aircraft and i while shooting it i flew uh i mean i flew in all different kinds
of gliders and cessnas
and i flew in the f-14 wow three hops in one day in the f-14 and were you
scared at all no i wasn't i
was uh excited yeah i'm very excited yeah i guess it actually would be a real
great benefit to what you
do for a living are you afraid of flying uh i'm afraid of flying i'm fascinated
by it though amazing yeah
it is amazing it's phenomenal you know if you ask the air force or the navy
they probably give you a
flight you know i know i've i've been able i've turned that offer down several
times because i just
know that the i did this once a long time ago and and for television or film
they would do things that
under normal circumstances they wouldn't do they'd say well you know the crew's
here we better go ahead
and take it up we'll take it up on one engine but normally we wouldn't do this
uh and i just you
know they're going to start showing off and you know we made letterman sick and
that would be their
that's true uh current uh film is cocktail in the nationwide release nationwide
doing huge business
isn't it i think so yeah and when when is rainmaker coming up rain man rain man
did i say rain maker
rainmaker was made in 45 i'm sorry rain man rain man this christmas yeah this
christmas great nice to
see you thank you very much