Cue up some Bob Seger! Tom Cruise can’t resist getting the opportunity to dance around in his underwear, just like in his classic scene in Risky Business. The Mission: Impossible actor, 60, admitted that he still likes to bust some movies in his underwear in a new interview with Access Hollywood at the premiere of the latest M:I film on Monday, June 19. Tom opened up about what it was like shooting the movie’s most famous scene. “I’ll never forget that day that I shot that scene,” he said.
While Tom seemed surprised to realize that the movie was 40 years old, he admitted that he was 19 while shooting it, and he said that when it came to the scene where he slides across the floor in a button-down, socks, and underwear, he used some real-life inspiration. “I grew up dancing in my underwear in my house, who doesn’t?” he said. When the interviewer asked if he still does, Tom admitted, “I still.”
Aside from where he drew inspiration from, the Top Gun star admitted that it was difficult figuring out how to get the shot just right. “I had to figure out how I slide across the floor in my socks,” he said. “I tried to slide in my socks. It didn’t work. I said, ‘Well, let’s just put stuff down on the floor.’ I slid all the way across. That didn’t work. The guy said, ‘Put the sticky spray there.’ So every time I’ll slide and land center frame.”
Now that it’s been 40 years since the movie came out, Tom said that Risky Business was a “learning experience” for him, and he learned a lot about the “cinematic process” while working on it. “That was a formative experience. I feel very lucky to have had that opportunity, to be able to have that kind of script and that kind of material at that age,” he said.
Risky Business has long been considered one of the movies that really put the actor on the map. The scene where Tom dances to “Old Time Rock And Roll” by Bob Seeger has widely been considered a classic and has been parodied and referenced countless times over the years with tons of stars borrowing the look and recreating the dance moves.