Hawke hypothesized that the “Mission: Impossible” series had a different effect on the industry than merely generating hundreds of millions in revenue.

Ethan Hawke says Tom Cruise makes him ‘angry’ because he’s ‘totally changed what’s expected for actors’

Hawke hypothesized that the "Mission: Impossible" series had a different effect on the industry than merely generating hundreds of millions in revenue.

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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January 27, 2026 11:05 p.m. ET

Ethan Hawke and Tom Cruise. Credit:

Dia Dipasupil/Getty; Kevin Winter/Getty

- Ethan Hawke says that Tom Cruise's stunt work has "changed what's expected for actors."

- While discussing his gritty new historical drama *The Weight*, Hawke said, "everyone somehow feels like they're less if they use a stunt team."

- Cruise has been performing his own death-defying stunts for years on the *Mission: Impossible *franchise.

Tom Cruise rewrote the rules of movie stardom. Ethan Hawke would like some of them changed back.

While at the Sundance Film Festival promoting his gritty new historical drama *The Weight*, Hawke reflected on the toll stunt work has on actors, a conversation that invariably leads back to Cruise. Hawke expressed complex feelings about Hollywood's long-reigning king of stunts after completing many of his own in the upcoming film.

"Tom Cruise has totally changed what's expected for actors," he shared on Sunday in an interview with *Variety*. "Some part of me is getting angry over the years because everyone somehow feels like they're less if they use a stunt team."

Tom Cruise in 'Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning'.

Paramount Pictures

Hawke explained that what he liked about the experience of shooting *The Weight *was that "there were no ridiculous stunts. It's human. It's not about things blowing up, so most of the stunts were things we could do. They weren't superhero things."**

* *has reached out to a representative for Cruise for comment.****

Ethan Hawke says shooting 'The Weight' was 'one of the hardest summers of my life': See first look

Tom Cruise says this 'Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning' stunt 'almost broke my back'

Cruise hasn't ever starred in a superhero film of the Marvel variety, but he has certainly accomplished stunts of superheroic proportions across the *Mission: Impossible* franchise.

In a commentary track from the home video release of the latest entry in the franchise, *Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning*, Cruise recalled one death-defying stunt that "almost broke my back."

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During that film's climactic biplane battle between Cruise's Ethan Hunt and Esai Morales' villainous Gabriel, Cruise dangles mid-air from a seatbelt as the plane flips upside down. Aside from "[separating] the joints in Tom's fingers from the force," director Christopher McQuarrie explained, Cruise also took a "brutal" hit to the side when a roll slams his character into the plane.****

Ethan Hawke and Russell Crowe in 'The Weight'.

Hawke performs stunts as well in *The Weight*, including one terrifying sequence in which Hawke's Samuel, a father on a quest to save his daughter, must cross an icy river.

"This was one of the hardest summers of my life," Hawke told EW on Tuesday in an exclusive preview of the film. "Being in the water, being in the woods, I keep saying, 'Oh, it's an action movie without that much action,' but it was exhausting. Just worrying about the ticks alone."

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