Tom Cruise did the closing performance without payment. (Photo Credits: X)
Tom Cruise performed a crucial part at the closing ceremony of the Paris Olympics 2024.
Performing at the closing ceremony of the Paris Olympics 2024 wasn’t just a no-pay thing for Tom Cruise but also had one other factor involved. The Mission Impossible actor laid down a major condition before agreeing to deliver the high-octane stunt in Paris, where he made a dramatic entrance by parachuting from the top of the stadium and riding a motorcycle with the Olympic flag. Casey Wasserman, president and chairperson of the LA28 committee for the upcoming 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, recently opened up about the Hollywood actor’s involvement in the ceremony. He revealed that it was producer Ben Winston who had the idea to include Cruise for a brief moment, but the actor wanted to do the stunts himself.
Speaking at the CNBC x Boardroom: Game Plan event in Santa Monica, he said that while the original concept involved a stunt double, Cruise himself changed the plans. “The best part of the story is we pitched on Zoom, and the original idea was a person in the stadium as a stunt double. We’re like, ‘Well, there’s no way we’re getting this. We’re going to get four hours of filming time. We’ll do the thing with the Hollywood sign; he’ll hand the thing off, and he’s done. Maybe we’ll get the other stuff and the rest will be just a stunt double,” he said.
Despite Winston’s concerns about Cruise’s commitment to the event amid his busy schedule, he eventually made it to the main day. He not only took part in the closing ceremony without payment but was also able to fit the physically demanding Olympic segment into his tight schedule and did his own stunts.
“He finished filming Mission: Impossible at 6 PM in London and got right on a plane. He landed in Los Angeles at 4 AM and filmed the scene where he pulled onto a military plane. In L.A., he does two jumps out of the plane. 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,” Wasserman recalled.
It is worth mentioning that Tom Cruise is currently busy with the production of his yet-to-be-titled eighth Mission: Impossible movie.
