Sun, Nov 16, 2003,

By Mike Szymanski

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (Zap2it.com) -- Tom Cruise credits Scientology for the inner peace and serenity he projects in his latest film "The Last Samurai."

"Well, it's known I'm a Scientologist, and that helped me to find the inner peace and great stability and tools to help others," Cruise says in a very candid press conference for his

latest film opening Dec. 5. He plays an alcoholic Civil War veteran hired by the Japanese government to quell a Samurai rebellion, but who ends up joining the profoundly religious warriors.

The controversial religion is also embraced by such actors as John Travolta, Anne Archer, Jason Lee, Isaac Hayes (Chef in "South Park") and Nancy Cartwright (Bart in "The Simpsons.") It was founded by American science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard. Although it qualifies as a religion for tax purposes in the United States, Scientology isn't recognized as a church in some other countries, and critics have called it an abusive cult.

In the 90-minute interview on Saturday (Nov. 15), attended by Zap2it.com, Cruise mentions Hubbard as a "great teacher" and "how he found out why there are wars and why people go to war and that communication is the universal solvent."

Cruise also speaks about personally witnessing how Scientology has helped illiterate homeless people to read, kept children off "lethal drugs" for Attention Deficit Disorder, and how their Narc-Anon program has rehabilitated hundreds of thousands of people "to live drug-free lives and go back to society and not feel that they have a disease."

He acknowledged that international film critics may draw parallels between "The Last Samurai" and America's invasion of Iraq.

"Wars don't resolve conflict, ideas do," Cruise says. "You look how history keeps repeating itself."
Cruise at Last Finds Epic with 'Samurai'
He saunters in with "Top Gun" cockiness, wearing his close-cropped "Minority Report" hair and his scruffy "Jerry Maguire" partial beard. He even flashes an aw-shucks "Risky Business" grin as a journalist refers to him as the "biggest movie star of our time."

Tom Cruise has entered the room, and instantly becomes the cool, self-effacing, almost self-deprecating guy we've seen him play in everything from "Cocktail" to "A Few Good Men" to his latest film "The Last Samurai." No actor can claim the box office clout of Cruise, but he explains it away quickly.
"I love what I do; I mean I love creating that emotion, or going to that place," he says. "When I go to see a picture, I'm a great audience because I love movies."

Known for being press shy, Cruise greets journalists he recognizes. "I always feel a responsibility to promote a film. I haven't opened any shopping malls, but I may."

Many critics are calling "Last Samurai" his best performance to date. This means Oscar buzz, something he's been through before with three nominations. "If I got something from my peers, people who understand and make movies, that would be wonderful. But it's not why I do what I do," he demurs before wishing last year's best actress winner, ex-wife Nicole Kidman, the best.

In "Samurai," Cruise plays alcoholic Civil War Captain Nathan Algren who's enticed to Japan by a general intent on eradicating the savage Samurai with modern weaponry. It's a movie that director Ed Zwick ("Shakespeare in Love") worked on developing for years with Cruise's professionalism as important as his enthusiasm.

"Tom Cruise is the hardest working person I've ever worked with," Zwick confirms.

Cruise admits he's a workhorse. "When I work, I work very hard. So I work with people who have that level of dedication. And I depend on that from everyone, from the director to my crews."

To prepare for "The Last Samurai," he read Civil War diaries, took martial arts and did a lot of exercise.

"I couldn't touch my toes when I started," Cruise admits. "I bent down and couldn't get my hands past my knees. Fifty pounds of armor doesn't seem so much but when you start lowering your center of gravity, bending your knees, it's tremendous pressure on the groin, the hamstrings. So I put on 25 pounds."

The 5-foot-7 actor also studied Bushido, a code of loyalty and sacrifice, and likens it to his own religion, Scientology. "Bushido is compassion; I try to lead my life like that. It's known I'm a Scientologist and that's helped me find inner peace. It's given me great stability and tools that I use."

A father of two children under the age of 10, Cruise is painfully aware of the R-rated violence throughout "Samurai" and says he asks his son and daughter about their own thoughts on war.

"I try to educate with a broad sense of history, different cultures," Cruise says, explaining how he framed the family's discussion of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. "Unfortunately, conflict does exist. They look at it and they're shocked. There're times you have to make a stand. But you have to do it from a position of true knowledge. Not from 'might is right.'"

"The Last Samurai" opens nationwide on Friday, Dec. 5.
'Last Samurai' Cast and Crew Credit Cruise'
By Mike Szymanski

Tony Goldwyn won't name names, but says, "Some actors can be a pain in the ass to deal with."

As an actor, director and part of the Goldwyn movie mogul family, he's seen it all. So when he was cast to be the nemesis in "The Last Samurai," he was surprised to see how nice Tom Cruise was to him and the rest of the cast and crew.

"He's the biggest movie star in the world and he

brings an intensity to the set," Goldwyn tells Zap2it.com. "He wants everything to be great, and he spends 15 hours a day on the set."

Then, when it was time to break after the long days, Goldwyn watched Cruise immediately focus with the same energy on his two small children, who were often on location with the actor in New Zealand.

"He made us feel we were really part of a team, and he was right there step-in-step with us all the way."

One of the film's producers, Cruise didn't receive any upfront salary for the film, but screenwriter John Logan ("Gladiator") says that he was involved with every aspect of the project, including his own intense research of history, diaries and Samurai beliefs.

"Tom was so enthusiastic and obsessed with the history, and I have to get that way, too, so that helped me."

Even musical score writer Hans Zimmer ("The Lion King," "Gladiator") says he was entranced by Cruise.

"I called him by his character's name, Algren. I knew he wanted this to be big, and it helped me try to reinvent myself for this film. We knew where we were heading every step of the way."

Although the Asian actors involved have had some measure of success in their own overseas film industries, their first meetings with Cruise were nerve-wracking. Ken Watanabe, who plays the Samurai leader that Algren is supposed to kill, was known as a regal Samurai warrior on Tokyo television for years.

"I was a little nervous meeting this huge Hollywood star for the first time," Watanabe recalls. "It was the day after the [terrorist] attacks on 9/11, it was on the 12th and we were all a bit shaky anyway. I could not speak English so well before shooting."

Cruise walked to the set through the back door, wearing a T-shirt, jeans and a Yankees baseball cap. No one recognized him for a few minutes.

"He's been cool and open-minded throughout the shoot, and that makes us all feel at ease," says Watanabe.

Cruise's character is commissioned to quell a rebellion of Samurai warriors, but then comes to admire and respect the Japanese warriors and joins them. Actor Hiroyuki Sanada plays Ujio, who doesn't trust the American soldier and has a critical fight scene with him.

"Sure, I was very nervous that I not hurt him. He is a big movie star and I did not want this responsibility," says Sanada, who starred in the hit thriller "Ringu" that was remade "The Ring" and has acted since he was five years old. "I kidnap Tom, I kick and spit and beat him and he kept telling me to 'do more, do more.'"

Sanada also became the linguist coach to help Cruise speak Japanese for the movie. Cruise got so good, that he had to tone it down because, according to Sanada, the accent was too authentic.

"I was so grateful for Hiro's help with the language," Cruise says. "If I'm going to do something, I go all the way and I didn't know if I could do it, honestly, if I could find that kind of physical elegance and movement that the Samurai have. I look at Hiro and Ken and the natural grace of these actors."

"The Last Samurai" opens in theaters nationwide on Friday, Dec. 5.
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