Tom Cruise’s first manager claims actor was obsessed over his looks and had ‘terrible temper’; threw album at her face

Tom Cruise’s first manager Eileen Berlin has come forward with details of the actor’s alleged temper tantrums in the early stages of his career, during one of which, he threw an album at her.

Eileen worked with the Mission Impossible star at the beginning of his career when he was 18. She even let him stay at her home during a tough phase in his career.

In a recent interview with Daily Mail, the 86-year-old looked upon pictures and headshots of Tom that were taken over the four-and-a-half year period when she was working with him. She explained that the actor had been so insecure about his looks that he took an entire day experimenting with poses for his first publicity headshot.

Eileen, who nicknamed the actor Tommy, recalled the photoshoot, “There’s contempt, arrogance, frustration, charm sadness. I saw him in all those moods. What I have never seen is a real display of happiness in Tommy.” Eileen noted that Tom’s now-infamous tirade from 2020, where he yelled at the members of the crew at Mission Impossible 7 sets for flouting Covid-19 social distancing norms, was a reflection of his temper issues that she first witnessed when he was a teen. 

The filming of the seventh and the eighth instalment of the action movie series had already been delayed multiple times due to the pandemic. According to Eileen, the staff breaking Covid restrictions was especially triggering for the actor as he wouldn’t want the shooting to get further delayed, due to his insecurities over his looks which may be getting worse with him nearing his 60th birthday.

“Tommy had a terrible temper. He harbored a lot of anger at his natural father (Thomas Cruise Mapother III). He was moody and would get angry in a snap of your fingers. It was like something was smoldering and it would boil up and explode. I put it down to his insecurity,” she said.

Eileen recalled one such incident reflecting Tom’s temper where he threw her birthday present to him right at her face. She said, “I presented him with an album with all his publicity articles from teen magazines for his 19th birthday. He screamed, ‘I don’t want to be in the teen mags.’ He had told me he considered himself an adult, not a teen idol. He threw the album hard at me and it hit me on the cheek.”

Also Read: Celebs react to Tom Cruise’s expletive-filled rant, George Clooney says: ‘It’s not my style, but I understand why he did it’

Eileen’s professional relationship with Tom ended when he moved to Los Angeles, however, they have kept in touch in the following years. As for Tom’s romantic relationships, she was “shocked” that he had three marriages (Mimi Rogers, Nicole Kidman and Katie Holmes) and that they lasted as long as they did.

“I wish he had other things in his life. But I don’t think he loves people. He loves what he does. I feel sad for him. I worry that he is lonely. As long as he can work and make his kind of films, he’ll be okay. What will happen if ever he can’t do that, I don’t know,” she said.