It’s undeniable that Tom Cruise is the biggest Hollywood star. No other actor can match his stardom or box-office pull. To add to that, he’s a great actor who is known for his professionalism and commitment to the project. As such, he’s courted by the best filmmakers in Hollywood for their films.

In 2014, an Oscar-winning writer, Aaron Sorkin, wanted the actor in the movie he was making with Danny Boyle. This was a high-profile project that had already got an adaptation the year before. So the pressure was on to deliver something different. Sorkin wanted Cruise but Boyle wasn’t so convinced.

Oscar-Winning Hollywood Writer Desperately Wanted Tom Cruise To Join His Ambitious Film

Tom Cruise

About a decade back, the biggest scandal to hit Hollywood was the Sony breach. Hackers had released information and emails about various projects backed by the company and it was a disaster of epic proportions. In one such leaked mail, it was revealed that Aaron Sorkin originally wanted Tom Cruise for the Steve Jobs film (2015). As reported by The Verge, here’s what the mail said:

“I just got off the phone with Danny who’s concerned about the age but I think I got him thinking about it and he’s going to look at some scenes from Lions for Lambs where Tom’s basically auditioning for Jobs. He’s also concerned that the choice will be met with derision because it’s such a commercial choice but I honestly think that ends up working for us.”

Michael Fassbender

Sorkin had faith that Cruise would wow everyone with his performance since they weren’t making a literal adaptation of the Apple boss’ life. He further wrote in the mail to Sony:

“Tom’s going to surprise some people and they’ll want to reward that. I don’t think we’d have to recast Woz. Seth’s the right age in the first act and Tom’s the right age in the third. And the movie announces itself pretty quickly as not being literal–as being a painting rather than a photograph… I wouldn’t think he was too old. I think it would be dazzling performance.” 

However, as we now know, it was Michael Fassbender who came on board for the film instead of the Top Gun star after Boyle chose him. Apparently, this is the reason why Sony backed out of financing the movie. However, Sorkin had no issues with Fassbender even though the actor looked nothing like Jobs. In fact, the writer justified his decision as well.

Steve Jobs Writer Defends The Controversial Decision To Cast Michael Fassbender

Aaron Sorkin

Steve Jobs (2015) was written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by Danny Boyle with Michael Fassbender playing the titular character. The film performed miserably in theaters, grossing just $34 million on a $30 million budget. There were complaints that Fassbender looked nothing like Jobs. These problems were exacerbated because just a couple of years ago, Jobs (2013) starring Ashton Kutcher, who looked uncannily similar to the IT pioneer, had been released.

Michael Fassbender as Steve Jobs

However, in an interview with Business Insider, Sorkin revealed that right from the start they weren’t going for a hundred percent accuracy at all. He also backed up Boyle’s decision to cast Fassbender. He said, “The fact that he (Michael Fassbender) doesn’t look like Jobs, I think, is one of the things that signals to the audience that this is a painting and not a photograph… It was about inhabiting, it’s almost Shakespearean. He’s historically accurate to a degree, but then he is our version of him.” 

Still, one has to wonder how Tom Cruise would have looked as Steve Jobs. Guess, we will never know.

Steve Jobs is available on Amazon Prime Video.

Source: Insider and The Verge