This resembles my feelings towards Tom Cruise. I always thought of him as an action star and nothing more (well, a Scientology-kook as well, but that detracted further). But his performance in Magnolia was so convincing to me that I started seeing his acting skills in a different light.
It certainly does feel that Tom Cruise simply plays the exact same person in almost every movie he's in. But that just makes it worse, surely? Tom Cruise is amazing at being Tom Cruise; my low-budget actor who's going to have Tom Cruise's face plastered over him in post-production is probably going to be atrocious at being Tom Cruise. Maybe even creepily so; I'll spend the whole movie wondering what's wrong with him.
Yep, I'm really sick of seeing Tom Cruise in so many movies. I'll actively shy away from watching a movie with him in it. I just can't disassociate him from all that Scientology cult silliness he keeps pushing; it ruins the suspension of disbelief.
Oh, I don't know. My respect for Cruise has gone up quite a bit. The MI series is formulaic but he does put a lot of effort and soul into his work. Top Gun was a slap in the face to formula films. Some of his smaller projects (like Jack Reacher) were fun to watch too. Collateral is an underrated classic though.
I would say Tom Cruise is probably the biggest male movie star for exactly what you say. His performances have a degree of authenticity to them that is unique. When you see the stunts, you're often seeing him, and this gives his films a unique thrill and feel.
That said, Top Gun had some pretty incredible makeup and/or CGI for his face. The lighting in that movie was also phenomenal. The result was an almost uncanny valley look to him where he looked simultaneously old and young all at once. I was especially thrown off by the pre-movie screener he produced that thanked the audience for seeing the film in theatres. He looked a solid 5-10 years older in that screener compared to Top Gun, which was filmed mostly in 2019.
I felt the same way about Tom Cruise until I saw Collateral, which quickly become my favorite movies of his and possibly one of my favorite movies of all time.
I was especially moved by a scene where the Tom Cruise humbly confesses “this is the only look I have”, in relatable acknowledgment of his limitations as an actor.
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