Tom Cruise now has an Oscar to his name. The Mission Impossible actor accepted an honorary Oscar on Sunday night at the Governors Awards, giving an emotional speech that paid tribute to his history with movies. Notably, Tom got nominated for the Academy four times previously, including nominations for Best Actor for the films Born on the Fourth of July and Jerry Maguire.
The honorary Oscar was presented by the Mexican filmmaker Alejandro G. Iñárritu, who is directing Tom in an upcoming film, which set for release next October.
On receiving the award Tom said, “The cinema, it takes me around the world. It helps me to appreciate and respect differences. It shows me also our shared humanity, how alike we are in so, so many ways. And no matter where we come from, in that theater, we laugh together, we feel together, we hope together, and that is the power of this art form. And that is why it matters, that is why it matters to me. So making films is not what I do, it is who I am.”
The actor also reflected how his love for cinema, “began at a very early age”, and remembered doing everything that he could do to get into theatres to watch films.
“I was just a little kid in a darkened theatre, and I remember that beam of light just cut across the room, and I remember looking up, and it seemed to be just exploded on the screen.
“Suddenly, the world was so much larger than the one that I knew. And entire cultures and lives and landscapes all unfolded in front of me, and it sparked something. It sparked a hunger for adventure, a hunger for knowledge, a hunger to understand humanity, to create characters, to tell a story, to see the world. It opened my eyes. It opened my imagination to the possibility that life could expand far beyond the boundaries that I then perceived in my own life. And that beam of light opened a desire to open the world, and I have been following it ever since,” he recalled.
He added in conclusion, “I want you to know that I will do everything I can for this art form, to support and champion new voices, to protect what makes cinema powerful. Hopefully without too many more broken bones.”
Earlier this year, Tom released Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, which is probably the final film of the Mission Impossible franchise.
Not just Tom Cruise, on Sunday, the Academy also presented honorary Oscars to Dolly Parton, Debbie Allen, and Wynn Thomas.
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