Empireonline has Tom Cruise publicly commenting on playing Lee Child’s iconic hero Jack Reacher in the upcoming film ONE SHOT.
Ever since word first leaked that Cruise was playing Reacher, the was a very vocal portion of the public that was unhappy with Cruise playing the much taller Reacher. Tom addressed that: “Firstly, I’m very sensitive to it,” Cruise explained, revealing that Child came to watch his readings. “This is Lee’s book and Lee’s character. Him giving me his blessing is what made me do it. If he hadn’t then I wouldn’t have done it…”Lee told me that the reason he wrote him that size (6′ 5″) is because that was just one element to his character, and that opened the door to me playing him.”
He also talked about what drew him to the character: “Reacher is such a great character…He doesn’t have a cell phone, he doesn’t have email. He’s off the grid. He pays for things in cash. People look at things through the prism of the colours of their life, but Jack Reacher does things the way we want to sometimes. In that sense he’s sort of a Dirty Harry, a James Bond, a Josey Wales.”
Filming started earlier this month, with Christopher McQuarrie directing a screenplay by himself and Josh Olson.
It is not the size of the character (special effects people can fix that) it is the size of ‘his’ character. The actor proves he is not in touch with Reacher’s depth when he compares him to Dirty Harry, a wooden vengeful character.