Twenty-seven years after its release, Stanley Kubrick‘s last movie, ‘Eyes Wide Shut,’ has found its own strange place in culture. Some people see it as a cult classic, while others watch it every Christmas. And a lot of people still argue about what it all means. However, when it first hit theaters in July 1999, most viewers just felt confused, and critics could not agree on it.
For Tom Cruise, though, the star of the film, the problem was pretty simple. He believed people showed up with the wrong idea, and they never let it go.
Tom Cruise on Why Audiences Misunderstood ‘Eyes Wide Shut’
In an interview with Cameron Crowe for Vanity Fair, Cruise said, “There were rumours out there about how Stanley was going to make a pornographic picture. But that wasn’t the movie he was making.” He continued, “You can see that they didn’t quite grasp what the movie was, even when they saw it, because they carried the baggage in.” The actor blamed the marketing, especially the trailer, for setting people up with the wrong expectations. “You have to understand: it’s Stanley Kubrick,” Cruise went on. “It’s not going to be what you think it is. And he’s not going to tell you everything.“
Related: Why Stanley Kubrick Was Reportedly Frustrated With Tom Cruise During ‘Eyes Wide Shut’
Cruise spent 15 months on the shoot, which broke the record for the longest continuous film production at 400 days. Even big Kubrick fans, he thought, did not really get it. “Whatever preconception you have, you’ve got to take it on its own merits and not the surrounding elements,” he said.
The Real Subject of the Film Was Not Pornography but Jealousy
The baggage was mostly about sex. People saw the biggest movie star couple in the world teaming up with the guy who made ‘A Clockwork Orange‘ and ‘The Shining,’ and they expected something dark and dirty. But Cruise always said the movie was about something else.
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He described it as “sexual obsession and jealousy,” not some kind of porn flick. On Larry King’s show, he called it “a thriller” and said it was really a character study about the human mind.
Inside the Grueling 400 Day Shoot and Stanley Kubrick’s Demanding Methods
The shoot itself was brutal. Kubrick was famous for his secrecy and for doing repeated takes. He made Cruise walk through a door 95 times just for one simple shot. Kubrick would not let Cruise watch any footage from the day before, so the actor had to figure out his performance without really seeing what he was doing. The director even dug into Cruise and Nicole Kidman‘s real marriage and used their own issues in the story. “Tom would hear things that he didn’t want to hear,” Kidman admitted about their private talks with Kubrick. “Those lines get crossed… and it happens when you’re working with a director that allows that to happen. It’s a very exciting thing to happen; it’s a very dangerous thing to happen.“
Cruise got an ulcer from all the stress and the long hours. But he never complained about it. He just saw it as part of working with someone that good. “I don’t care how long it takes,” he remembered telling Kubrick, “but I have to know: are we going to finish in six months? Tell me it’s going to be two years.“
How ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ Became an Unconventional Holiday Classic Over Time
The movie got a lot of hate at first. But over the years, people have started to appreciate it more. Newer audiences have connected with its ideas about rich people and power, and some have even compared it to real-life scandals that came out later. The look of the film and the creepy Christmas atmosphere have also made it into something people watch during the holidays, even though it is not exactly a cheerful movie.
For Cruise, the film will always be proof of Kubrick’s unique way of seeing things. He did not care about giving people what they wanted. He wanted them to think harder. “Because whatever preconception you have,” Cruise said, “you’ve got to take it on its own merits.” For the people who actually do that, ‘Eyes Wide Shut‘ is not some failed experiment anymore. It is a masterpiece.
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