When Tom Cruise Revealed What He Did With His First Big Paycheck, “I Actually Paid For…”

Hollywood’s most handsome and A-list actor, Tom Cruise, debuted in the industry in the early 1980s and quickly established himself as a leading actor. His performance in Risky Business launched his career and made him a rising star. Cruise’ breakout role came in Top Gun, where he played the fearless fighter pilot Pete Maverick Mitchell, which catapulted him to international stardom and a defining moment in his career.

While Cruise has dominated in a wide range of genres, he has delivered countless box-office hits and remains one of the top actors in the industry. Reflecting on being the highest-paid actor, Cruise once made a startling revelation about his first paycheck and what he did with it.

In a throwback appearance on The Graham Norton Show, the Mission Impossible star opened up about his first paycheck when asked what he did with it. The actor said, “I actually paid for my college, my sister’s college education, and the next one, I bought my other sister a car.”

Cruise has three sisters, Cass Mapother, Lee Ann Mapother, and Marian Mapother.

Talking about Cruises’ paychecks, recently, the actor delivered an epic stunt at the closing ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics and made a shocking amount of money for his attention-grabbing stunt.

Well, the president and chairman of the 2028 Games, Casey Wasserman revealed that the actor completed the stunt for free. He said, “He finished filming ‘Mission: Impossible’ at 6 p.m. in London, got right on a plane. He landed in LA at 4 a.m. and filmed the scene where he pulls onto a military plane.” He explained that Cruise was more involved and engaged with his stunt and did the pretaped stunt for free.

Wasserman quipped, “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.’”

Furthermore, an entertainment executive recalled that during a presentation, Cruise quickly committed to the project on one condition—if he got to do everything—and even volunteered to do it for free. The Top Gun star was a notable presence at the Olympics. He stunned the audience at the closing ceremony by descending from the top of the French stadium to officially pass the Olympic torch to Los Angeles.