A benefit of being Tom Cruise must be that whenever he wants something to happen, he’s probably able to make it happen. Even when it came to offering casting suggestions to a notoriously finicky director like Stanley Kubrick, Cruise managed to get his way, convincing the “Eyes Wide Shut” filmmaker to bring then-wife Nicole Kidman into the project. Speaking for an interview featured in the June issue of Sight and Sound (per The Independent), the “Mission: Impossible” star recalled traveling to England to meet Kubrick for the first time and pitching Kidman for “Eyes Wide Shut” then and there.

“I flew out to his house and I landed in his backyard. I read the script the day before and we spent the day talking about it. I knew all of his films,” Cruise said. “Then it was basically he and I getting to know each other. And when we were doing that,...