“I don’t know, this is Mackey to me.” The famous monologue from Magnolia was created by Tom Cruise, because he didn’t like the original idea for his character
If it weren't for Tom Cruise, the famous monologue from Magnolia wouldn't have been written. And he wrote it because he didn't like the original idea for his character.
It's hard to imagine, but the script for Tom Cruise, who plays Frank T.J. Mackey in the movie, a repulsive misogynist who teaches men seduction techniques, revealed that he wrote the scene.
The actor likes to be involved in creating the characters he plays. He cares about understanding his character better, which is why, by his own ission, “there's a lot of communication and dialogue about character [and] story.” And there were also conversations about Mackey from Magnolia. During an interview with the BFI, the actor confessed that at first there were only a few sentences in the scene that became the famous monologue, but he decided to invite Paul Thomas Anderson to show him his idea for Mackey.
The whole monologue wasn’t there at the beginning. That wasn’t there. There was a couple of sentences. And I said, “Look, just come over to my place. Let’s do the wardrobe fitting.” And I [Anderson] wanted me in, like, IZOD shirts and khaki[s]. I was like, “I don’t think that’s this guy.” Let me just show you my instincts on this. So, I created that whole character.
Cruise often follows his instincts. And he intended to this time, too, so he invited Anderson, who accepted the invitation, and showed him his version of Mackey.
I was in my screening room. I had him. I said, “Just sit down right here.” And I lit it… and I had the whole music, and I basically wrote the opening monologue… my version. And I was like, “Let me just show you what I'm going to do.” And he was like literally right here sitting. And just as I was doing it, I could just see his face. [Anderson was] like, “What the fuck?” I was like, “I don’t know, this is Mackey to me.”
And it also became Mackey for Anderson himself. Cruise took this character and made it his own. And Mackey we know from Magnolia is the result of Tom Cruise's collaboration with Paul Thomas Anderson, as the character was further developed based on the Mission: Impossible star's idea.
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