Ethan Hawke says he’s ‘angry’ with stunt precedent set by Tom Cruise

For Tom Cruise, death-defying stunts might be par for the course, but Ethan Hawke is “getting angry” by the precedent the action hero has unintentionally set for actors. Advertisement AdvertisementAdvertisement Advertisement“Tom Cruise has totally changed what's expected for actors,” he told Variety after The Weight premiered at Sundance Film Festival. They weren’t superhero things.”The Weight, set in the 1930s, follows Hawke’s widower, who is tasked with smuggling gold through deadly terrain so he can be granted early release from a work camp. Advertisement AdvertisementAdvertisement AdvertisementIn one breathtaking scene in 2025 Mission Impossible film The Final Reckoning, Cruise dangled off a plane in mid-air – an aerial stunt the actor remembered as “brutal”. Tom Cruise performing death-defying 'Mission: Impossible' stunt (Paramount Pictures)“This separated the joints in Tom’s fingers from the force, so by the time we finished this sequence, your hands were absolutely swollen – oh my God, it was so painful to watch,” director Christopher McQuarrie recalled.