Friday, August 31, 2007

Tom defends controversial role

Tom Cruise has broken his silence and is defending his controversial role as the German colonel famous for a failed attempt to kill Adolf Hitler. "All I can say is, 'Save your comments until you see the movie,'" Cruise told a German weekly regarding the German politicians and media who have attacked his religious beliefs and his decision to play one of Germany's greatest heroes in the movie Valkyrie. "I want to think positive and concentrate on the film. I carry a great responsibility to the Germans, for whom a man like Stauffenberg means so much," Cruise said. "And I feel this responsibility to the man himself. The more I learn about him, the greater my respect and admiration of him." Cruise added that when director Bryan Singer approached him about the role, he tossed a script on his desk with a picture of Stauffenberg on the cover. Says Cruise, "Intuitively I saw a similarity in the profile of this man and myself. Naturally that's something that makes an actor curious." Cruise says he enjoys living in Berlin with Katie Holmes and their daughter Suri: "To my great delight I've discovered that my family and I can walk in the park at night and it's not dangerous."