Long before Tom Cruise was hanging from airplanes or riding motorcycles off cliffs, he was shoveling ice and handling maintenance problems at a New York apartment building.
The 64-year-old actor recalled working as a superintendent’s assistant on Manhattan’s Upper West Side before his Hollywood career took off. “I shoveled the ice every day,” Cruise said in a new Good Morning America interview previewed by Entertainment Weekly.
Cruise said he also made sure the garbage went out and entered apartments when tenants needed something repaired. “I took care of it. Whatever you need!” he recalled, describing himself as a handyman who had already worked several different jobs while growing up.
Asked whether he approached the job with the same intensity he later brought to filmmaking, Cruise said his instinct when something went wrong was simple: “I want to fix it. I’ve got this!”
Cruise Worked at an Upper West Side Building Before ‘Taps’
The building connected to Cruise’s early New York years has surfaced before. A 2023 Fox Business report identified it as 50 West 86th Street, a five-story property near Central Park.
That report described Cruise as the building’s superintendent and said he lived and worked there before landing his role in the 1981 military drama Taps. Cruise’s new recollection is more specific, with the actor describing himself as the superintendent’s assistant.
His duties ranged from clearing ice outside the building to dealing with heating problems and other repairs inside residents’ apartments.
Cruise was still a teenager when he began pursuing acting professionally. His early screen credits included Endless Love and Taps in 1981, followed by The Outsiders and Risky Business two years later.
The Story Came Out While Cruise Was Promoting ‘Digger’
Cruise shared the story while promoting Digger, his new film with director Alejandro G. Iñárritu.
Cruise plays Digger Rockwell, described by the film’s official site as the world’s most powerful man, who races to prove he can save humanity from a disaster he helped create.
The cast also includes Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg and Jesse Plemons. Iñárritu directed from a screenplay he wrote with Alexander Dinelaris, Nicolás Giacobone and Sabina Berman.
Cruise underwent an extensive physical transformation for the role, including prosthetics that initially took approximately six hours to apply. During the film’s press tour, he said the makeup team eventually reduced that process to less than an hour by rehearsing and timing each step.
Digger begins its international theatrical rollout on Sept. 30 and opens in North American theaters and IMAX on Oct. 2.