Tom Cruise’s payday for that Olympic stunt may surprise you
By Lisa Respers France, CNN
(CNN) — Tom Cruise pulled off an impressive stunt at the Paris Olympics closing ceremony for which he was compensated by… thrill?
According to Casey Wasserman, chairman of the LA2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Cruise was all for his jump from the Stade du France to accept the official Olympic flag from Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Olympian Simone Biles.
The “Mission Impossible” star then cruised (no pun intended) through the streets of Paris on his motorcycle to board a plane near the Eiffel Tower before reappearing for a skydive into the area near the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles in a pre-recorded segment.
“The backstory is that we realized we were producing a 15-minute live TV show, and so I hired who I think is the best person in the world to do that,” Wasserman said during the recent CNBC X Boardroom panel, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Wasserman said Cruise insisted on doing all the stunts himself.
“We’re like, well there’s no way were’s getting this. We’re going to get four hours of filming time,” Wasserman said. “We’ll do the thing that the LA with the Hollywood sign, he’ll hand the thing off and done. Maybe we’ll get the other stuff and the rest will be just a stunt double. About five minutes into the presentation [Tom Cruise] goes ‘I’m in. But I’m only doing it if I get to do everything.”
Cruise not only did it all, but Wasserman said the actor did it for free.
“He finished filming ‘Mission Impossible at 6 p.m. in London, got right on a plane. He landed in LA at 4 a.m. and filmed the scene where he pulls onto a military plane,” Wasserman recalled. “In LA he does two jumps out of the thing. He didn’t like the first one, so he did a second jump. Then he helicoptered from Palmdale to the Hollywood sign, filmed from 1 until 5, helicoptered to Burbank Airport and flew back to London.”
Mission accomplished.
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