Tom Cruise Is Too Short To Play Jack Reacher Again
When Tom Cruise gets his annual physical at the Church of Scientology’s medical facility, he steps up on the scale and the doctor announces: “Sweet thetans Tom, you’ve grown another 4 inches this year! Don’t hit your head on the door frame when you leave.” Which is very kind of them, but probably not the truth, considering the author of the Jack Reacher novels just came out and said that Tom is too tiny to play the title character again.
Tom has played former US Army major-turned-drifter Jack Reacher in two films, 2012’s Jack Reacher and 2016’s Jack Reacher: Never Go Back. Jack Reacher is described in the books as being almost six-and-a-half feet tall, with hands the size of dinner plates. Ooooh, you know what they say about a guy with dinner plate hands (confused wink). Tom Cruise, meanwhile, rings in at about five-foot-seven.
According to BBC News, Jack Reacher is being turned into a television series. BBC Radio spoke with Jack Reacher’s creator, author Lee Child, who let everyone know the Jack Reacher of the small screen wouldn’t be small like the Jack Reacher of the big screen.
“Cruise, for all his talent, didn’t have that physicality. I really enjoyed working with Cruise. He’s a really, really nice guy. We had a lot of fun. But ultimately the readers are right. The size of Reacher is really, really important and it’s a big component of who he is.The idea is that when Reacher walks into a room, you’re all a little nervous just for that first minute. And Cruise, for all his talent, didn’t have that physicality.”
Lee adds that they’ve decided the next installment of Jack Reacher would happen as a streamable series, and that he wants fans to help choose who this new Jack Reacher will be.
Of course, we are talking about television, and Tom Cruise might think he’s too good for that and is shrugging at the new direction for Jack Reacher. We’ll probably never know. But it’s a good move in the event they want to keep Jack Reacher as true to character as possible. I did find it a little strange that not once in the movie did someone say, “Jack Reacher? Yeah, maybe with a stepladder.”
Pic: Wenn.com