Tom Cruise wanted to play Watchmen’s Rorschach; Zack Snyder whispered, “No”
Rorschach’s Journal, April 18th, 2024: Zack Snyder appeared on Happy Sad Confused podcast; said Tom Cruise wanted to play Rorschach
Aux News Watchmen
Photo: Warner Bros/Dc Comics/Kobal/Shutterstock
It’s a given, in this day and age, that the streets are extended gutters, and the gutters are full of blood, and when the drains finally scab over, all the vermin will drown. But did we also know that there are some pretty interesting Hollywood what-ifs floating in that river of blood, particularly surrounding Zack Snyder’s 2009 Watchman movie?
Appearing on Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast, Snyder cleared the record on some ancient Watchmen casting rumors. Horowitz brought up some names that were rumored for the film long ago, including Keanu Reeves for Dr. Manhattan and Tom Cruise for Ozymandias, but that wasn’t the whole story. “I wanted Cruise for Ozymandias, he wanted to play Rorschach,” said Snyder.
Let’s pause for a moment and consider 2009 Tom Cruise playing Rorschach. Around that time, and as hard as it may be to imagine now, Cruise’s career was in a bit of a tailspin. Sure, the cameo in Tropic Thunder earned some modest praise—but also accusations of anti-semitism because that movie was a lightning rod for controversy. Lion For Lambs, Valkyrie, Mission: Impossible III, and Knight And Day on the horizon were all feeling the burn of Cruise’s couch-jumping relationship with Katie Holmes and the Matt Lauer interview where he called psychiatry a pseudoscience, criticizing Brooke Shields for using medication to treat postpartum depression. That’s the Cruise that wanted to play Rorschach, the guy who’s constantly covered in “human bean juice” and bashing child predators to death with a meat cleaver. While that does sound like Cruise, we think he’d probably be a better fit for sad Captain Metropolis, who faces his own diminishing influence while in the throes of a mid-life crisis. But God doesn’t make the world this way, Zack Snyder does.
Snyder acknowledges that Cruise “obviously could’ve done” the role, but Jackie Earle Haley, who gives one of the film’s best performances, had already been cast. “I certainly would’ve considered Tom, in retrospect, if I hadn’t had Jackie.”
Ironically enough, in 2009, Snyder told The L.A. Times that Cruise couldn’t be the guy for the role because audiences were too familiar with him and his fame.
“I think if you have a Tom Cruise, someone of that stature of fame, it makes it harder to present this other world and keep the viewer right there in it,” the director said at the time, perhaps forgetting that he had a conversation with Cruise about the role.
18 Comments
Psychiatry is a pseudoscience but we sure didn’t need Cruise as the spokesman for that.
Bread… Bread… Bread… you’re glib.
Something like that.
Lol what a load of crap. There’s no way Snyder would have turned Cruise down for any part in Watchmen, a film in desperate need of some star/acting power.
I don’t believe him
Probably one of his smartest decisions
Snyder acknowledges that Cruise “obviously could’ve done” the role, but
Jackie Earle Haley, who gives one of the film’s best performances, had
already been cast. “I certainly would’ve considered Tom, in retrospect,
if I hadn’t had Jackie.”
In any movie, Tom Cruise is Tom Cruise.
In Watchmen, Jackie Earle Haley is Rorschach.
Say what you will about Snyder and that adaptation in particular, but Haley really was superb casting for that role.
I think the casting in general was pretty excellent. I’m not sure I could point to an actor whose performance didn’t fit the material they were given.
I’m not sure Malin Akerman quite hit the mark for Laurie, but otherwise I’d say the cast was pretty top-notch.
He was easily the most watchable part of that movie.
In any movie, Tom Cruise is Tom Cruise.I feel the same about Natalie Portman.
There are a few actors that have made successful careers out of just playing themselves. John Wayne for example.
“I wanted Cruise for Ozymandias, he wanted to play Rorschach,” said Snyder.Ozymandias is literally the comicbook role Cruise was born to play, so it’s… weird to see that Snyder thought so as well.Because whatever he told Matthew Goode to do was the exact opposite of what Cruise-as-Ozymandias would’ve done.
::jumps on couch with crazed look in eyes:: “I’m not locked in here with YOU, you’re locked in here with ME!”
If Cruise played Rorschach, the suspension-of-disbelief would’ve been shattered—too famous to make the role work. It would’ve been just like Spencer Tracy playing Klaatu in The Day The Earth Stood Still, which I read Tracy was fired up to play the role.And ironically Keanu Reeves playing Klaatu in the newer suckass version of The Day The Earth Stood Still is very similar to Dr. Manhattan.
I think because Tom Cruise hasn’t done anything interesting in years people forget how good he is in Magnolia and Interview with a Vampire. I think the bigger issue is Snyder capable of directing a good performance out of Cruise. I’d say no. Jackie Haley was gonna be good no matter who directed that movie.
Cruise would have killed it as Ozymandias because the character has a presence and that is what Tom Cruise has in spades. Matthew Goode was OK, but felt too small for the role. Not just physically, but something was missing. Cruise would have run with the role, but I’m not sure how he would have felt playing the villain at that point in his career. Other than Ozy, the cast was pretty damn good, but a hat tip to the crew that built Archie. It looked amazing and damn it looked like it could fly.