Tom Cruise Prefers Directors to Read Scripts Aloud

Tom Cruise revealed that he employs a distinct method when considering new film roles: he has directors read scripts aloud to him rather than reading them himself.

"I don’t read the scripts. I have them read it to me," Cruise, 64, stated during an appearance on Jason and Travis Kelce’s "New Heights" podcast on September 18. He explained that this approach allows him to absorb the material without his own preconceived ideas influencing his initial perception.

"I want to understand: What is their communication? They’ve been working on it, and they have things that are just there," Cruise elaborated, gesturing towards his head. He likens this process to that of a moviegoer, evaluating whether the story is engaging.

"I’m a popcorn guy. I’m a meat-and-potatoes popcorn [guy]," he said, describing his criteria as assessing if the narrative is moving and if he feels invested. "Where am I engaged? Where am I not engaged?"

Cruise also mentioned that hearing the scripts read aloud allows him to gauge the input from other departments, such as wardrobe and lighting. "We get to a place where I start to understand and then I’m like, I know how to contribute to that motion now," he said. "It sparks ideas and I kind of have certain ideas that I have and certain things that I’d like to play with and then I don’t necessarily talk about it. I just do it."

The actor's appearance on the podcast came shortly after he was seen conversing with Taylor Swift at a Kansas City Chiefs game. Cruise later recounted on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" that Swift was "schooling" him about football and called her a "genius."

Cruise also addressed rumors about his on-set intensity in a September 15 GQ cover story. "Even when I was a kid, they were like, ‘Oh, come on, Tom. You’re so intense.’ I’m like, ‘I don’t know what to say. I am intense'," he told the publication. "I work hard, and people that work with me, they know. I expect a lot, and I’m up-front about it."