With leading roles in 80s box office hits Risky Business and Top Gun, superstar Tom Cruise managed to successfully cement his place on Hollywood’s A-list early on in his career.
By 1992, the renowned actor was already considered one of the world’s most bankable stars, likely making him a shoo-in for any role of his caliber that year, such as his epic western romance film Far and Away.
But to film director Ron Howard, DailyMail.com can reveal, it was lesser known actress and Cruise’s new bride Nicole Kidman who had the star power he was seeking for the movie at the time.
The former Hollywood power couple starred alongside each other in the film, which would ultimately turn out to be a critical flop and box office disappointment.
It had been nicknamed Cruise and Kidman’s ‘Honeymoon Movie’ since they had married shortly before filming the drama which recounts the romance and struggles of 19th Century fictional Irish immigrants Joseph Donnelly and Shannon Christie in America.
Howard shared rare insight into the making of the film at a screening of the movie at New York City‘s Museum of Moving Image (MOMI).
Then-Hollywood power couple Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman starred as leads Joseph Connelly and Shannon Christie in the 1992 epic western romance movie Far and Away
The couple went to the Cannes Film Festival for a showing of what was referred to as their ‘honeymoon movie’, as the pair had married shortly before they started shooting
Speaking to the audience, the filmmaker revealed he had been far more invested in casting Kidman, 57, and deliberately avoided telling Cruise, 62, his wife was ‘more of a priority’ than he was to get him to make epic drama.
Howard, 70, who played Richie Cunningham in Happy Days as a child actor before becoming a director, told the audience: Cruise ‘was already one of the major stars. He really wanted this for Nicole.
‘What he didn’t realize is that Nicole was at the top of my list before I ever thought Tom Cruise could be in it’.
‘But Nicole was just coming up and a newer discovery but I always felt like she would be great for Shannon.
‘So when I started talking to Tom, at that point they were dating, they had done Days of Thunder, they were, you know, kind of an item but nobody knew how serious.
‘He said, “Well, what do think about Nicole Kidman? Would you be willing to meet her?” I said, “Yeah, I would.”
‘I don’t think I told him that she was more a priority than even he was,’ Howard admitted.
Cruise and Kidman had fallen in love shooting their first movie racing car movie Days of Thunder in 1990.
The pair divorced in 2001, less than two years after the release of their third and final movie Stanley Kubrick’s searing erotic thriller Eyes Wide Shut.
Howard’s admission is all the more interesting since at the time the film was being made, Cruise was a far greater Hollywood star than his wife who had not yet starred in her mid-1990s box office hits Batman Forever, Malice and To Die For.
Howard added: ‘When he came on board I think he always cherished this as a tremendous woman’s role for Nicole. He certainly wanted to do his part and I really enjoyed working with both of them and the rest of the cast.’
But the movie flopped making just $59million at the US box office, less than its estimated $60million budget.
Howard admitted that he was more interested in casting Kidman, who was then a lesser-known actor, than superstar Cruise
The epic drama recounts the romance and struggles of 19th Century fictional Irish immigrants Joseph Donnelly and Shannon Christie in America
The Hollywood director admitted he thought Kidman ‘would be great for Shannon’ and had been ‘at the top of my list before I ever thought Tom Cruise could be in it’
Howard admitted at MOMI he was lucky to get the film made: ‘I don’t even know how you’d get this movie made today. Even then it was a real rarity.’
Howard argued one of the reasons it received an underwhelming box office reception is that the comedic elements were overlooked as critics fixated on the fact the epic, shot in County Wicklow, Ireland, and parts of Montana, was the first film in a decade to be shot in the wide high-resolution 70mm format.
Howard said: ‘In retrospect I think in some ways it sort of led to a misunderstanding around the film.
‘Because when it came out I always thought of it as like if Frank Capra and John Ford put their head together and decided to make a romantic comedy maybe it would look something like this.
‘To me it was always playful, romantic, innocent, sweet, almost a fairytale and a fable kind of story.’
But he said because nobody had done a movie in 70mm in over 10 years, people thought that he believed this was a serious, heavy drama about immigration simply because of the format.
‘I think it created a little confusion, never for audiences, even though it wasn’t a big-grossing movie because even with movie stars period movies in the summer have rarely broken through. It was OK box office.’
Despite a lavish premiere at the Cannes Film Festival and a London premiere that attracted then-UK Prime Minister John Major in 1992, critics were unkind to Far and Away.
Celebrated critic Roger Ebert wrote: ‘It’s depressing that such a lavish and expensive production, starring an important actor like Tom Cruise, could be devoted to such a shallow story’.
Howard revealed he had deliberately avoided telling Cruise his wife was ‘more of a priority’ than he was to get him to make epic drama
The movie unfortunately flopped making just $59million at the US box office, less than its estimated $60million budget
Tony Parsons, then of the Daily Mirror, wrote it was ‘a stinker of the picture…far and away the worst film I have ever seen.’
Howard alluded to the awkward reception of Far and Away when introducing the film to the audience at MOMI.
‘By the way when it’s funny it’s supposed to be – so it’s OK to laugh,’ he joked.
The director, who had more luck with hits including Apollo 13 and A Beautiful Mind, said Far and Away was an important movie for Cruise as an action star as he underwent a meticulous training regime for several intense boxing fight scenes.
‘He treated himself like an athlete, he trained every day, really worked out, had a trainer,’ Howard said, adding: ‘We did that boxing montage, including the first fight, all in one day.
‘Tom went through five different stunt guys. They were all exhausted and Tom was smiling at the end of the day. It was kind of mind-blowing. It’s not the kind of thing that you can double.’
But Howard revealed Cruise was not so lucky on horseback, sustaining an injury on the set: ‘I already knew, having done some work with horses as an actor and director, it’s the most dangerous thing you can do.
‘You’re dealing with a huge creature that is uncontrollable at times and can be frightened.
Cruise and Kidman would not reunite on screen again until seven years later in 1999 erotic psychological drama Eyes Wide Shut which revolved around deception and dishonesty in a marriage
The one-time power couple divorced in 2001, less than two years after the release of their third and final movie together
‘Tom took one horrible fall once. He had the challenge of having to ride like the wind but look like a farmer who had never been on a horse.
‘He was riding in a very unorthodox way and he was supposed to balance and you can see how many shots were undeniably him.
‘He did it once and then we did it again and his horse came off and he was down. But he was OK. We got through the whole thing safely.’
Since their divorce, Cruise and Kidman have taken great pains not to be photographed together.
They were reportedly both no-shows at their daughter Isabella’s wedding in 2015 and last year Cruise was rumored to have skipped the Oscars to avoid an awkward ‘run-in’ with his ex-wife.
The pair attended the Paris Olympics on the same day late last month but while Tom watched the Artistic Gymnastics Women’s Qualification at Bercy Arena, Nicole was a 20-minute drive away at Place de la Concorde with her second husband Keith Urban watching the Women’s Street Final.
During the closing ceremony at the Olympics Cruise abseiled down into the Stade de France in a jaw-dropping stunt that saw him slide 115-feet on a rope from the venue’s roof as part of the handover to Los Angeles for the 2028 Olympic Games.
