Tom Cruise has become pretty well known for his willingness to do absolutely ridiculous, potentially life-threatening stunts in the name of cinema, but one of his earliest and least-beloved roles nearly earned him a broken nose. Long before he was stunt fighting onboard a real, speeding train for “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning,” Cruise was playing former soldier-turned-bartender Brian Flanagan in the 1988 movie “Cocktail.” “Cocktail” isn’t a good movie by any stretch of the imagination, following Brian as he tries to find love or direction in life, going from New York City to Jamaica and acting like an obnoxious jerk the entire way. He flips bottles and treats women as disposable, roll credits. There are a few memorable moments in “Cocktail,” of course, but nothing that would put Cruise in any real danger… right? Wrong.
It turns out the actor’s face was in danger of being smashed courtesy of his co-star Gina Gershon, who played a photographer that Brian has a fling with early on in the film before he leaves New York. It was a total accident, mind you, but Gershon feared that she very nearly broke his nose during their sex scene … which is honestly a little funny. Not only because of the circumstances, but because “Cocktail” is Cruise’s lowest-ranked movie on Rotten Tomatoes, which would have meant potential facial damage for an absolute bomb. Now that’s painful.
A near-broken nose from pretend sex
During an appearance on “Watch What Happens Live” (via People), Gershon revealed that while filming her “first love scene ever,” she had a literal knee-jerk reaction that nearly left the already famous Cruise with a bloody nose. She apparently warned Cruise that she was ticklish and he decided to tease her a bit, which lead to almost catastrophic results. As she explained:
“In one take I have to say […] I think he wanted a reaction, he grabbed my stomach and I kneed him right in the nose. I was like, ‘Oh, my god, I just broke Tom Cruise’s nose.’ He’s like ‘No, no you told me.’ I was like ‘I’m so sorry’, he was like ‘No, it was my fault. He was so protective over me. He was great.”
It sounds like a funny little mishap and it’s great that Cruise was so cool about it. Then again, some people might enjoy being injured by Gina Gershon. Just saying.
Cruise’s wild history of acting injuries
While the whole knee-to-nose incident ended up being no big deal, Cruise has had plenty of serious injuries over the course of his career. It’s really no surprise, given the fact that he seems to like to tempt fate with stunts that could cost him everything from an eye to his very life for the “Mission: Impossible” movies. In fact, he even continued performing his part in a scene in “Mission: Impossible — Fallout” despite having just broken his ankle, making sure not to limp on-camera so the take wouldn’t be ruined. It ended up being in the final cut, which is honestly pretty metal. Cruise has his reasons for doing his “Mission: Impossible” stunts even though he’s been racking up injuries for years and has even had those injuries delay filming.
Oh well. As long as Cruise doesn’t ever try to tickle Gina Gershon again, he’s probably at least somewhat safe.