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Cruise hails Buddhist influence
Tom Cruise, who stars in Edward Zwick’s “The Last Samurai”, Friday praised eastern religion saying “Buddhism is the grandfather of scientology” and climbed up on a chair to show off his new-found strength and flexibility in the making of the film.
These things — you know, any time — where there’s ignorance about something or people don’t want to know about something, you know, it really gets back to gossip or, you know, just people don’t know something, there you have racism. There you have bigotry. And that’s where those things stem from.
The publishers of Apologetics Index publically challenge Tom Cruise to show where and how these research resources on Scientology are the result of “ignorance,” “gossip,” “racism,” and/or “bigotry.”
The 41-year-old star, sporting short hair and a grey suit, waxed lyrical on Buddhism during a Paris news conference at the Ritz hotel held to promote the release in France of the movie next week.
“I was struck by the code of Bushido (the way of the Samurai). It’s powerful, it talks about compassion, helping others, responsibility, integrity… timeless values, ways I identify with,” said Cruise, who has practised scientology for 20 years.
“Buddhism is the grandfather of scientology,” added the actor, flanked by Zwick and his Japanese partner Hiroyuki Sanada.
The star of “Misson Impossible” and “Minority Report” lifted weights for eight months to bulk up his muscles, gaining 12 kilograms (26 pounds) of them to play the role of Captain Nathan Algren, an American civil war veteran tasked with modernizing the Japanese army during the 1870s.
To show off his new supple physique he climbed onto a hotel chair and touched his toes.
Will (“Men In Black”) Smith’s wife had appreciated the extra muscle he gained on a set, a journalist said. What about Cruise?
“You mean was Penelope (Cruz) thankful?,” said Nicole Kidman’s former spouse referring to the Spanish actress. “Is that the question? That’s just something that happened. I like to think that I satisfied her before and after that.”
In the two-and-a-half hour movie, Algren is hired by the Emperor Meiji to train an army which would be able to eliminate the samurai, who for centuries were the primary defence force for the Japanese empire. When he is captured by the samurai in a battle, his loyalties are seriously called into question.
The movie, filmed in Japan, New Zealand and Hollywood, premiered in early December in Japan and the United States simultaneously.
“I learned a lot about my own history and the Indian Americans,” Cruise said.
“The beauty of cinema is to melt barriers and see how other people live and celebrate different cultures, instead of being afraid.”
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