Michael Cera Says He Met Tom Cruise For the First Time When Cruise Yelled at Him in Character as Len Grossman From TROPIC THUNDER

There are plenty of stories out there about people meeting Tom Cruise for the first time. He’s enigmatic, good to his fans, and intensely dedicated to his work as an actor. But it may be that intensity that has led to some of the best stories about Cruise, from the perspective of fans and co-workers alike.

Michael Cera has one such story, which he recalled in an interview on the Louis Theroux Podcast (via Entertainment Weekly), where he described showing up to film a pre-taped segment for the 2010 MTV Movie Awards, where Cruise was in appearance as Len Grossman, his over-the-top character from Tropic Thunder.

“Tom Cruise did one where he was playing his character from ‘Tropic Thunder,’ the movie mogul guy. So they were shooting all day these little clips of him and that character interacting with various people coming in and out, and I came in and I did a little moment with him on that.”

He went on:

“Tom runs the set. I was really there for like five minutes, but what I observed was, he was like the first AD on the set…. I mean, he was such a leader. The first moment I had with him, I arrived, they were shooting, and I was talking to the writer.

“We were just kind of mumbling while they were shooting, but they could hear us. It was just like 40 feet away. And Tom Cruise looks at me, I’ve never met him, and they’re in the middle of a take and he looks, and he goes, ‘Is that Michael Cera talking during a fucking take?’ He was joking, but it was also like, ‘Do shut up,’ you know? But so surreal.”

Cera came face to face with Cruise later that day, explaining, “Then I met him and he is like, ‘Talking during a fucking take.’ I knew he was playing around, so I was like, ‘Hey man, it wasn’t me, it was the writer.’ He was like, ‘I’m kidding, I’m kidding.’ And I was like, ‘I’m kidding, too.'”

What a moment to share with Tom Cruise, and a good story to have in your back pocket.