Summary
- Tom Cruise made a memorable appearance on the first season of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, where he discussed his film The Last Samurai and faced some unexpected questions.
- Ellen asked Cruise about his favorite song and his preference for underwear, leading to some awkward and humorous moments during the interview.
- Despite the awkward moments, Cruise returned to The Ellen DeGeneres Show two more times, once with Katie Holmes, and has had other memorable interviews in the years following his first appearance.
The Ellen DeGeneres Show has had several memorable guests over the years, but perhaps none had been as memorable as Tom Cruise. The A-lister is no stranger to talk shows, having made several appearances to promote his many hit films over the years.
That is exactly how Cruise ended up guesting on Ellen during the show’s first season. Recently, however, the resurfaced 2003 interview has been getting some attention for awkward reasons.
Tom Cruise Was One Of Ellen's Season One Guests
Back in 2003, DeGeneres had just started her talk show, and celebrity guests just kept coming. Among the show's first guest stars were DeGeneres’ good friend Jennifer Aniston, the late Betty White, Justin Timberlake, Alicia Keys, George Lopez, Mary J. Blige, Ted Danson, Dwayne Johnson, and Jennifer Love Hewitt.
And of course, DeGeneres’ guest list wouldn’t be complete without Cruise who appeared in a December episode along with Gloria Estefan.
At that time, Cruise had been busy promoting The Last Samurai. It was one of the few period dramas in the actor’s career where he plays an American military advisor drawn to the ancient samurai culture after being hired by the Emperor of Japan to train the country’s first army in modern war tactics.
While he did discuss the film with DeGeneres, the A-lister also faced several random questions during his interview.
Ellen Asked Tom Some Awkward Questions
As these questions kept going, Cruise’s Ellen interview began to take a more awkward turn. It all started when DeGeneres revealed that she had some “important questions that need to be answered.”
The Emmy-winning then asked Cruise about his “favorite song to boogie to” and in response, the actor revealed that he had been listening to Grammy-winning singer Joss Stone who was relatively new to the music scene at that time.
After that, the interview got a little more interesting after DeGeneres suddenly asked Cruise if he preferred “boxers, briefs, or nothing at all.” Perhaps stunned by the question, Cruise found himself laughing like crazy for a full minute.
He then quipped, “At which point in the day?” In response, DeGeneres bluntly asked the actor what he was wearing at that very moment. After laughing hard some more, Cruise eventually revealed that he was wearing briefs.
As for DeGeneres, the host revealed that she prefers boxers. The talk show host also stood up to show off the pair she was wearing, which was labeled “Tom.”
And while the moment may have seemed awkward, Cruise remained in his seat as DeGeneres continued to ask him more interesting questions. After getting into a discussion on Cruise’s pets (which include dogs and iguanas), DeGeneres then asked, “Britney or Christina?”
When he tried to clarify what DeGeneres meant, the daytime host explained that she was referring to pop stars Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. In the end, Cruise simply answered, “I’ve never thought about it.”
Soon after, DeGeneres also asked Cruise about his dance moves, particularly that memorable scene that he did for the R-rated comedy Risky Business where he shows off his moves in his underwear.
After explaining what it took to nail that scene, Cruise is also persuaded to recreate the slide he did in the movie. This time, however, the actor also remarked, “I'm going to leave my pants on.”
Tom Cruise Returned To Ellen Two More Times
And while Cruise’s first Ellen interview had some awkward moments, the A-list star returned a couple more times. In 2006, Cruise was a guest star on two of DeGeneres’ season 3 episodes.
In a January episode, the actor made an appearance on the show alongside his then-fiancée Katie Holmes who was pregnant with the couple’s first child (she gave birth to daughter Suri just a few months later).
Around the same time, DeGeneres also ran into the couple at CES Las Vegas where she memorably volunteered to become a godparent for the couple’s first child. She also suggested that they name their child Ellen if was a girl.
Meanwhile, Cruise also later returned in May, which was around the time of the release of Mission: Impossible III. He also stopped by the show just in time for Mother’s Day. To celebrate, the actor famously surprised the show’s audience with 225 bouquets from Speaking Roses.
At the same time, Cruise would also go on to have other memorable interviews in the years that followed. Of course, this includes the actor’s 2005 interview on The Oprah Show where openly talked about falling in love with Holmes.
A few years later, Cruise sat down with Winfrey once more to reflect on that infamous interview and his unexpected couch jump. Of that experience, the actor simply said, “It was a moment.” Cruise also explained that when the couch jump happened, it was just “something, you know, that’s just how I felt.”
Aside from this, Cruise also memorably made an appearance on The Today Show in 2005 where he gets into an argument with host Matt Lauer over Brooke Shield’s use of an antidepressant to treat postpartum depression and calls Lauer “glib.”
While speaking with Howard Stern on his Sirius XM Show (via Daily Mail), Lauer later revealed that Cruise’s publicist tried to have the argument removed from the air and that Cruise apologized to him three years later.
