The Rumored Tension Between Angelina Jolie And Tom Cruise

While many celebrities attempt the impossible mission of keeping their private lives to themselves, it's certainly not easy, especially when you're as huge of an international star as Tom Cruise. Over the years he's had some big controversies, including his very public drama with Brooke Shields, as well as his complicated relationship with soccer star David Beckham and his wife Victoria Beckham. There's also been some tension between him and superstar Angelina Jolie, which goes back decades.

It all started when he was working on the 1994 film "Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles" which co-starred Brad Pitt, now Jolie's ex-husband. In it, Cruise plays a vampire named Lestat de Lioncourt who turns Pitt's Louis de Pointe du Lac into a vampire, making him his subordinate. Around the time of the film's premiere, Pitt reportedly said, "He bugged me. There came a point during filming when I started really resenting him." He noted that the two were complete opposites, and while working together: "There was this underlying competition that got in the way of any real conversation" (via National Enquirer).

Cruise would later find controversy in 2010 with Jolie, when she was in the midst of her marriage to his rival, Pitt. Jolie had also become a bankable action star like Cruise, making them both titans on the silver screen.

"Mission: Impossible" star Tom Cruise is widely known for doing most of his own stunts. No slouch, Angelina Jolie entered into the same realm when she filmed "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider," which was released in 2001. Initially skeptical about taking on the title character, she told Collider in May 2021, "I said, 'I really didn't feel like that character [Lara Croft] suited me.' I actually didn't at first want to do it; I said no." After some cajoling by the producers, she gave in due to their promise of world traveling, as well as having the British Military give her intense training.

She got so into it, that some of the stunts she performed struck fear in the hearts of her stunt doubles, who ran in the other direction when presented with the feats. The film's director Simon West told Cinema, "Angelina was doing triple back flips on the set. She was doing the [bungee] jumps from 50 feet up in the air. She was laughing. The stunt doubles were clinging to their safety ropes," adding that after every take she was ready to do it all over again. Jolie chimed in, noting that her innate fearlessness works to her advantage with the remark, "I feel alive when I'm afraid." However, becoming Cruise's stunt-actor equal would lay the groundwork for a rivalry.

In 2010, Tom Cruise was offered the lead in a film that was then entitled "The Far-Reaching Philosophy of Edwin A. Salt." Unfortunately, scheduling conflicts, coupled with the fact that he felt the main character was in many ways identical to his "Mission: Impossible" character Ethan Hunt, caused him to turn it down. This concerned the producers because the film had a $130 million budget, and not having Cruise's star power could have tanked it.

Fortunately, film producer Amy Pascal — then-head of Columbia Pictures — concocted the plan to change the lead character to a female, casting Angelina Jolie in the part, and renaming the character Evelyn Salt. In the globe-spanning adventure "Salt," Jolie once again did her own stunts, catapulting the film into international success with over $290 million at the box office. Cruise, who starred in the bland "Knight and Day" instead, may have some regrets about skipping the well-received "Salt."

Celeb Dirty Laundry reported in 2017 on rumors of an alleged affair between Cruise and Jolie, quoting a source that told the National Enquirer, "Angie's attracted to Tom's masculinity, power, and wild side." The National Enquirer would later report in February 2022 that Cruise, "Thinks they'd make a great pair onscreen — and off!" In a May 9, 2024 report, Heat World speculated that since both are currently single, there's romantic potential, quoting an insider who stated, "[Tom] loves that she's never really conformed in Hollywood." Whether or not their rivalry turns to romance, there's no stopping Cruise and Jolie's continued box office success.