Tom Cruise has played several iconic characters on screen in his career. However, the Top Gun: Maverick actor missed an amazing opportunity to replace Brad Pitt in the Oscar-nominated 2008 film, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
The romantic drama starred Pitt in the lead role with David Fincher directing. The film bagged 13 Oscar nominations, winning three in total.
While the Babylon star, 59, received praise for his stunning performance in the movie, which earned him an Oscar nod for Best Actor in a Leading Role, Cruise was about to play the lead role with Steven Spielberg directing the flick.
Talking to Entertainment Weekly, Spielberg recalled when he and
Cruise almost collaborated on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
“Tom
[Cruise] and I were friends. David Geffen introduced us when he made Risky
Business, when he was a kid. So Tom and I had been friends for many, many
years…personal friends.
“We had considered working together.
Benjamin Button, we had talked about maybe doing together, long before
Minority Report. But nothing quite jelled for either of us. So when Minority
Report came along, it wasn’t unusual for me to send him the screenplay. But
this is the one he said, ‘Let’s do this together.’”
Besides Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button starred Cate
Blanchett and Taraji P. Henson in prominent roles.
