‘Rain Man’ Happened Thanks to Tom Cruise’s Super Powered Sister

“Why don’t you call Tyler Perry? He makes movies.” “Have you tried writing a letter to Stephen Spielberg?” “I saw this show, Comic Book Men? They just sit around and talk about comic books. Go on that show.” These are the kinds of things family members will say when trying to be supportive of “creative types.” And these quotes are real! My parents said the latter two, and my father-in-law said the first to my wife. There’s this idea that the industry will just welcome people with initiative, as if insiders aren’t approached regularly for their tips, blessings, or support.

To be fair, there was a time when a little gumption could get you far in Hollywood. It wasn’t a guarantee of success, but stories exist about people writing letters, making cold calls, or showing up at celebrities’ houses and being welcomed with open arms. It isn’t like that anymore. Maybe there are some folks who would welcome an up-and-comer who figured out their home address or bothered them in public, but they are few and far between. That won’t stop family members from pushing these ideas as a means of advancement, but now you’d have to be Tom Cruise to get something like that to work. Hell, that was the case 40 years ago too.

Cruise was recently honored at the BFI and was full of anecdotes and stories. One that stood out took place in 1984, when Cruise was visiting his sister Cass Capazorio in NYC. She did the thing that any family member feels like they should do for the artist in their life: nudged him to go say hi to a famous person. To be clear, Cruise is already a movie star at this point. The Outsiders and Risky Business were in his rearview, and he had just finished shooting Legend. He was already a hot commodity. Still, I wouldn’t think Dustin Hoffman would be the most approachable, but that’s who Cruise and his sister saw.

“She goes, ‘There’s Dustin Hoffman.’ I looked up and there he was, in a hat — he was doing ‘Death of a Salesman’ — and he was ordering takeout,” Cruise told the crowd at BFI. “She goes, ‘You go over there and say hello to him.’ I was like, ‘I’m not going to say hello.’ She goes, ‘You know him, you know his movies.’ And she doesn’t do stuff like that. And I don’t walk up to people, but she was so pushy.” A man who has yet to meet his grandchildren telling my wife to call Tyler Perry is obnoxiously obtuse. A sister to a movie star telling him to say hi to another movie star makes sense.

Still, Cruise was resistant. So Cass put her foot down and told him to go say hi or she would walk up and tell Hoffman who Cruise was. “If you don’t do it, I’m just going to go over there and tell him who you are.” Cruise noted, “He’s not going to know who I am, that’s going to be really humiliating!” But his sister went on to “pester me so much,” Cruise explained, that he relented. “I said, ‘Excuse me, Mr. Hoffman, I’m sorry …’ And he went, ‘Cruise!’” Pretty ideal, if ya ask me!

Hoffman gave Cruise and Cass tickets to Death of a Salesman. They got to go backstage afterward, and Hoffman expressed his desire to work with the young actor. “As I was leaving he said, ‘I want to make a movie with you.’ And I said, ‘That would be nice, sir,’” Cruise laughingly recalled. “And that’s what happened, and basically a year later he sent Rain Man.” Sometimes, family has good advice. Granted, they may have better advice if they were granted “superpowers” by one of the most powerful entities in Hollywood but that’s a different story.