I've heard a lot of people say this and I don't really get it. What exactly do you mean when you say that Tom Cruise plays Tom Cruise in every movie? Obviously Tom Cruise is a very well known actor but so is Tom Hanks. I never hear anybody say that Tom Hanks plays Tom Hanks in every movie. I mean Cruise's character in Magnolia, for example, is a lot different than his character in Days of Thunder. His character in the Mission Impossible movies is a lot different than his character in Jerry McGuire. What am I missing?

Speaking of bumbling,

Doesn't Hugh Grant pretty much play a bumbling guy in every movie he makes?

I know there was that serious movie where he was a Doctor or something, but everything else I can think of that he's been in he has been a bumbling *SOMETHING*.

Not true. In Collateral, he plays Tom Cruise With Grey Hair.

I'll take both sides. Tom Cruise might be odd (as we all are) but the media/intertubes seem hell bent on portraying him as a weirdo. I'll leave it at that, so as to not derail this thread.

Tom Cruise is often at his best when he's portraying a young and/or succesful cocksure upstart who may or may not get his comeuppance due to a romantic interest in a leading lady. (I think that describes Cocktail, Top Gun, Jerry Maguire, maybe Days of Thunder and a few others).

But, much like Brad Pitt, he mixes up these movies with other types of leading roles. Surely you can't say these are all the same character:
Frank T.J. Mackey (Magnolia, a concentrated mix of Cruise's earlier characters perhaps)
Dr. Bill Harford (Eyes Wide Shut)
Lestat (Interview with a Vampire)
Vincent (Collateral)
Charlie Babbitt (Rain Man)
Ron Kovic (Born on the Fourth of July)

That's not typecasting.

Finally, action Tom Cruise really does act the same in every action Tom Cruise movie: Minority Report, War of the Worlds, the Mission Impossible series. But that's the action genre. The lead just needs to be a badass and there's never enough time (or need) in a good action movie to do any character development.

Yeah, I'll agree with the action roles. He's always running around and usually is the world's last hope for survival.

His non-action (shoot-em-up/explosion/loud noises) roles are extremely varied in my opinion.

Sure, he's weird and no matter what role he's playing he'll always obviously be Tom Cruise (I don't think his name will ever be mentioned in that "I didn't know it was him/her thread") but I think he plays a good variety of different characters.

I'd say Anthony Michael Hall as the 'geek'.

Along the same lines, we can throw Jason Biggs out there.

= J