Tom Cruise reportedly opted out of attending the Oscars this year to spend the evening in an igloo.
The Hollywood icon, 60, was noticeably missing from the star-studded line-up at the 95th Academy Awards on Sunday, as his film Top Gun: Maverick received six nominations and won one award for Best Sound.
Cruise is thought to have snubbed the Oscars after learning that the film would not win Best Picture and travelled 500 miles south of the North Pole to Svalbard instead, to film scenes for the eighth instalment of Mission Impossible.
According to an insider, Cruise declined a private jet offered to him to escort him to the Oscars, as he visited Svalbard with director Chris McQuarrie to “get on with doing what he does best” in front of the camera.
“Tom just knows how these things play out – he’d rather get on with doing what he does best and making amazing movies that millions want to go and see than sit in an audience clapping and smiling for the cameras,” a source told The Sun.
They added: “He’s seen it all before.”
Top Gun: Maverick beat films All Quiet on the Western Front, Elvis, Avatar: The Way of Water and The Batman, as it bagged the Academy Award for Best Sound on Sunday.
The sequel to Top Gun, released 36 years after the original, has been dubbed the movie that “saved cinema” after amassing nearly $1.5billion at the box office last year.
Among those in attendance from the film at the Oscars were co-stars Jay Ellis, Danny Ramirez, Miles Teller and Greg Tarzan Davis.
It’s also been reported that Cruise skipped the ceremony to avoid an awkward run-in with ex-wife Nicole Kidman, who was seen at the awards show with husband Keith Urban.
A source told Mail Online: “Tom was not there because she was there, and he did not want a run-in.”
Cruise and Kidman, 55, divorced in 2001 after marrying in 1990. The pair share son Connor, 28, and daughter Isabella, 30, who they both adopted during their relationship.
Last month, Cruise attended the 2023 Oscars luncheon where he was seen speaking with Steven Spielberg.
The Fabelmans’ director praised the star at the event as he told him he “saved Hollywood’s a**” by bringing audiences back to the theatre.
