Tim Curry ‘Dreaded’ Working With a Huge Action Star — Here’s Why

Tim Curry recently opened up about his experience working with Tom Cruise on the 1986 fantasy film Legend.

In his new memoir Vagabond, released on October 14, the actor looked back on the project and admitted that working with the young Cruise wasn’t exactly what he expected.

Curry shared that before meeting Cruise, he had seen him in Risky Business and thought the casting there was spot on. “Before we met on the set of Legend, I had seen Risky Business with Tom cast perfectly as the cute, innocent young rebel,” he wrote.

“And when we finally appeared in a film together, he was very nice and easy to be around — but he’s also quite unique, and not a person I fully understood. We never had any issues, but I cannot say I felt the appeal.”

The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Scary Movie 2 star admitted that he didn’t share the same excitement others had about Cruise at the time. He said he wasn’t “starstruck” and even “dreaded” working with him before filming began.

Curry also noticed Cruise’s serious approach to acting. “He was very into fully embodying his role, and I believe even requested to sleep on the snow set because he wanted to feel at home there,” Curry recalled.

Because of his role as the terrifying villain Darkness, Curry spent most of his days in makeup and prosthetics, which took about six hours each day. That meant he didn’t get to spend much time with Cruise or the rest of the cast.

“I didn’t really engage with Tom Cruise all that much, perhaps because this wasn’t the type of film where we’d all sit around chatting — Ridley [Scott] didn’t foster that environment, and in my case my prosthetics regimen meant that I couldn’t exactly go out for pints prior to having my horns and hooves removed,” he explained. “By the end of my extrication I would be ready for nowhere but my own bed.”

Even though they didn’t become close, Curry ended on a positive note. “There’s not much I can say definitively about him, since we didn’t get to know each other very well, but at the end of the day I found him to be a very thoughtful, considerate colleague — which I appreciated.”

Curry’s honest reflection from Vagabond gives fans a rare look behind the scenes of Legend, showing that even when two big stars share the screen, their experiences can be very different.

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