Tom Cruise's 10 most talked-about controversial moments

Tom Cruise is a highly successful American actor known for his roles in blockbuster films like Mission: Impossible franchise, Top Gun and Jerry Maguire as he has been a major star in Hollywood for decades. However, Tom has also been involved in some controversies over the years which includes his involvement with the Church of Scientology and some of his public behaviors and statements that have drawn media attention and criticism.

Here are top controversial moments of Tom Cruise:

Tom Cruise's Oprah moment

Tom Cruise's most talked about weird moment was when he was on Oprah Winfrey talk show in 2005. He was there to talk about his movie, War of the Words, but people ended up talking more about him instead. Tom was super excited and said he loved Katie Holmes, who he was dating that time. The actor jumped up and down on Oprah's couch a lot. Later, he made fun of himself doing this on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

A stunt gone wrong

Tom Cruise is famous for doing his own crazy stunts in movies especially in the Mission: Impossible films as he has done super daring things like climbing the world's tallest building and being on the outside of a plane in mid air. But one stunt in Mission: Impossible – Fallout hurt him bad. When he jumped from one rooftop to another as he broke his ankle. Tom even showed the scary clip of the stunt on The Graham Norton show.

Tom Cruise's Church of Scientology moment

Tom Cruise is reportedly a member of the Church of Scientology. In 2008, a video meant for Scientology members leaked online. In the video Tom talks about Scientology in a way that seemed weird and really intense to lots of people. How he talked about it made fans kind of confused.

The Matt Lauer interview

Tom Cruise had a pretty famous argument with Matt Lauer on the Today Show in 2005. This happened after Brooke Shields talked about taking medicine for depression after having a baby. Tom spoke out against using those kinds of medicines and against psychiatry which he called a "pseudo-science". He told Matt, "Here's the problem: you do not know the history of psychiatry. I do." Later, Tom said he came across as arrogant in that interview.

Tom Cruise's Channel 4 incident

Tom Cruise got a bit upset with Channel 4 on a red carpet in 2025. The interviewer, who was part of a prank show without Tom knowing, sprayed water in his face. The American actor said, "That's incredibly rude. I am here giving you an interview." He kept calling the interviewer a "jerk" in a video that got viral online. After this, Channel 4 apologized to Tom for the prank because the police got involved.

MTV Awards moment

Tom Cruise played a weird role in the 2008's Tropic Thunder film. He was Les Grossman, a bald and kind of a heavy movie studio boss. He looked really different in that part. Tom then did something weird again at 2010 MTV Awards. He danced on stage with Jennifer Lopez as he was playing that same weird character of Les Grossman again, sparking a debate on social media.

Accepting the Scientology award

In 2004, Tom Cruise got a big award called the freedom Medal of Valour from the Church of Scientology. The American Made star gave a weird speech when he accepted it, talking to a painting of L Ron Hubbard, who started Scientology and wrote sci-fi books. The speech got viral online years later. People who are not part of Scientology saw it and were kind of surprised and laughed about it.

The 60 Minutes Australia interview

Tom Cruise's interview on 60 Minutes Australia was kind of a tense and awkward. The reporter, Peter Overton, asked him questions about his first wife, Nicole Kidman. To which Tom got annoyed, He told Peter, " Listen, here's the thing, Peter, you are stepping over a line now… and you know you are. I am just telling you right now. Put your manners back in."

Tom Cruise on David Letterman's show

Tom Cruise was on David Letterman's late-night show in early 2000s. It was kind of a weird interview as Tom started laughing a lot while telling a story about his movie. He kept laughing for like the whole interview. Everyone around him thought it was funny too, even David started laughing with him. Nobody really knows why Tom was laughing so much but it is one of his weirdest TV moments.

Tom Cruise's outburst on Mission Impossible 7 set

Tom Cruise made headlines recently for getting really mad at the crew of Mission Impossible 7. He was upset because they were not following COVID-19 safety rules. In an audio clip gotten by The Sun, Tom said, "If I see you do it again, you are f***king gone." He also said, "We are the gold standard. They are back there in Hollywood making movies right now because of us. Because they believe in us and what we were doing. We are creating thousands of jobs, you mother****ers. I do not ever want to see it again, Ever." People had different reactions to Tom's outburst as some did not like how mad he was and the bad words he used. Others thought he was right to care about safety during the pandemic.