Judd Apatow returned to the stage for the fourth time to host the Directors Guild of America Awards on Saturday, and he took the opportunity to savagely mock Tom Cruise.
From Tom's height, age and links to Scientology - there weren’t any topics off limits when it came to the director’s jibes directed at the 60-year-old Top Gun star during the DGA Awards.
The 55-year-old director began with the quip: “[The] visual effects in [Top Gun:] Maverick were so top-notch I couldn’t even see the stack of phone books Tom Cruise sat on to reach the flight controls.
“That’s why he’s always jumping out of tall buildings because you can’t tell how short he is from a 100-story building. That’s why when he’s standing on the wing of an aeroplane - he’s always alone, he doesn’t want anyone there next to him for scale,” he continued.
The director then went on to reflect on Tom’s infamous Oprah Winfrey Show interview in 2005, which saw the star jumping up and down on the sofa, before explaining his thoughts on the fact he often performs his own stunts in his many action films.
“What a lunatic.’ Now he drives a motorcycle off a cliff and then BASE jumps and we’re all like, ‘Tom’s fine.’”
Judd Apatow continued: “Tom is not fine, something is wrong right now. Someone needs to explain something to him called CGI — you don’t need to do the stunts, they look exactly the same when you do them on the green screen.”
He then playfully reminded the actor that at the end of the 1991 Thelma & Louise, they did not drive off a cliff in real life, stating: “You’re 60, calm down.”
Moving onto the star’s well-known links with the Church of Scientology - which believes that human beings are immortal, that a person's life experience transcends a single lifetime, and that human beings can harness infinite capabilities - Judd said: “Every time he does one of these new stunts it does feel like an ad for Scientology, it really does.
“I mean, is that in Dianetics because there’s nothing about jumping off a cliff in the Torah? The only thing he seems to be afraid of is co parenting and antidepressants,” to which some of the audience gasped.
“Do you think if Tom Cruise took antidepressants he’d be like, ‘I’m not jumping off of a fucking motorcycle on a cliff? Why do I even work, I’m rich.'”
It's been a turbulent awards season for Tom Cruise and the Top Gun: Maverick crew.
The team are set to snub the BAFTAs tonight after Tom failed to get nominated in the 'Best Actor' category and the sequel also didn't get a look in the 'Best Film' shortlist either.
Despite receiving nods in the cinematography, editing, sound and special visual effects categories, the team are said to be 'disappointed' to miss out on two major gongs.
A senior film source told the outlet that there was “disappointment” over a perceived “lack of love” for the aviation movie - which had been a huge hit with audiences.
