Tom Cruise Urges Young Actors to Learn Filmmaking Tech, Which Is ‘Not Taught in Film Schools’: ‘Brando Understood Lighting. All the Greats Did’

Tom Cruise took a moment while receiving a British Film Institute Fellowship (via Times of London) to urge young actors to learn about the craft of filmmaking. The A-list actor bemoaned film schools for failing to teach production tools and filmmaking technology to aspiring actors, as it’s important for all actors to know about lighting, camera blocking and more. For Cruise, being a good film performer extends beyond just the acting craft.

“It is important to understand the tools around you,” Cruise said. “There is tech. It is like understanding the stage as an actor but for a lot of artists it is not taught in film school: how to understand the lens and what it can do, and why there is eye movement and recognize the effect it has.”

“I always tell actors: spend time in the editing room, produce a movie, study old movies, recognize what the composition is giving you, know what those lenses are, understand the lighting and how to use it for your benefit,” Cruise added. “Understand the art form to that degree. Brando absolutely understood lighting; all the greats did.”

Cruise is so adamant about actors learning filmmaking craft that he put together his own six-hour film school video to show up-and-coming performers. Cruise’s “Top Gun: Maverick” co-star Glen Powell revealed to GQ UK magazine last year that he got the chance to watch all six hours of the video in a movie theater alone.

“He said, ‘This is just for my friends’,” Powell said. “[In the video Cruise] is like: ‘Do we all agree that this is what a camera is? This is the difference between a film camera and a digital camera…’ The funniest part is on flying. It was like he put together this entire flight school. So he would literally go, ‘OK, this is what a plane is. Here’s how things fly. Here’s how air pressure works.’”

Powell added that Cruise also told him that in order for a movie to be a global hit it has to “telegraph universal emotions” and “hit on anxieties that everyone can relate to.”

Cruise’s next studio tentpole is his last “Mission: Impossible” movie, “The Final Reckoning,” in U.S. theaters May 23 from Paramount Pictures.