In the "How to be A Man" issue of Esquire Tom Cruise talks about forgiving his father to being one and that whole thing on Oprah’s couch. Below is a glimpse of the interview in the magazine:
On His Father
"I remember looking at my dad and wanting to understand him. I didn’t want to just write the guy off. He was lost. I can’t speak specifically in terms of why and how he got to where he was — that was his journey. All I can tell you is, he was overwhelmed by life… My mother basically did all the work, and then they got separated and I didn’t see him for a long time. He didn’t try to help the family financially or spiritually, and I lived with the effects of the chaos."
On the Value of Family
"You hear about people who have lifelong friends. I never was in a place long enough to have them. So that role was filled by my family. "If anyone was teasing my sisters, I really felt it… I’d create different characters and ad-lib sketches to make my sisters and my mother feel better. I’d try to make them laugh. I’d do Donald Duck as John Wayne. I’d watch Soul Train and imitate the dancers. I guess you can say that’s where it started. I always had a dream to be in movies, [my family] didn’t say, That’s impossible. They laughed."
To read the rest of the interview and see more pics visit Esquire.