Rebecca De Mornay Reflects on Tom Cruise: “Really Proud of Him” After Decades Since Risky Business
Rebecca De Mornay Reflects on Tom Cruise: “Really Proud of Him” After Decades Since Risky Business
More than 40 years after sharing the screen and a brief romance with Tom Cruise, actress Rebecca De Mornay is expressing heartfelt admiration for her Risky Business co-star and ex. In a recent interview with Page Six published July 19, De Mornay praised Cruise’s enduring career and his ability to capture the cultural moment.
De Mornay, 65, who starred opposite Cruise in the 1983 breakout film Risky Business, where Cruise played Joel Goodsen and she portrayed Lana, a prostitute who enters his life while his parents are away, reflected on their early days together. The pair dated for about two-and-a-half years following the film’s production.
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“I’m really proud of him,” De Mornay told Page Six. “I’m really, really proud of him.” She painted an evocative picture of their dynamic, comparing Cruise to a “major chord” and herself as a “minor chord” — a metaphor capturing his larger-than-life persona and her more understated role in their relationship and careers.
“He’s like, ‘I am Top Gun and that’s what America really wanted, and so he’s fulfilled it,’” she said, acknowledging Cruise’s keen sense of the zeitgeist and his brilliant ability to interpret it through his work. “I’m really, really proud of knowing him from when we were in the suburbs of Chicago [filming Risky Business] and knowing what he wanted and where it is now. We started this together and look what he did with it.”
Since Risky Business — which earned Cruise his first Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy — the Mission: Impossible and Top Gun star has become one of Hollywood’s most iconic leading men. Meanwhile, De Mornay has built her own career with notable roles in films like The Hand That Rocks the Cradle and The Slugger’s Wife.
De Mornay is currently starring in the thriller Saint Claire, alongside Bella Thorne, Ryan Phillippe, and Frank Whaley. The film is now available in select theaters and on demand.
Their shared history, spanning both a professional and personal relationship, highlights the enduring legacy of Risky Business as a launching pad for two distinct yet remarkable careers—and now, decades later, De Mornay’s words offer a rare, sincere glimpse of respect and pride for the man who continues to define an era of Hollywood.
