31. He Had A “Told You So” Moment

Rice put up quite the battle, even trying to come to a compromise by recommending a number of other non-Cruise picks—but she ended up eating her words. When the film was complete, she took it all back. Rice praised Cruise for his acting, personally apologized to him, and even took out expensive ads in the New York Times and Vanity Fair to laud the film. When you’re a divisive personality like Cruise, that’s certainly gotta feel good.

32. He Was Pure Profit

If the 80s cemented Tom Cruise as a superstar, in the 90s he became a big-money megastar the likes of which Hollywood had never seen (and the 2000s…well, we’ll get to that). It’s impossible to overstate how profitable Cruise was in this period. He became the first actor to appear in five consecutive movies that grossed over $100 million. In 1993, he started his own production company, which made the movie series that would come to define his career—Mission: Impossible.