Tom Cruise really is everywhere: Climbing the side of building, hanging off a plane, and apparently living rent-free in the minds of the “Severance” team.
“Severance” lead star Adam Scott confirmed that “the king” Cruise was a direct inspiration for the opening sequence of Season 2. Scott’s character Mark sprints down the Lumon hallway for the scene, and Scott tried to emulate Cruise’s famed run in various action films. Scott in turn also realized just how much work it takes Cruise to make the run look effortless.
“There’s no way, if you’re running that much in a suit, there’s no way you can avoid any sort of comparison to Tom Cruise because he’s the king,” Scott said during SiriusXM’s “Literally! With Rob Lowe” podcast. “What I find is something that he does that’s incredibly impressive is, at one point when we were shooting the opening sequence for the first episode of Season 2, we did a bunch of different stuff. And at one point I was on a treadmill with a harness connected to me, and what we found was there was some uncanny valley thing that would start happening because if you’re on a treadmill, you’re running at a consistent speed. There’s no variation in your speed, whereas if someone is actually running, there’s constant variation in speed that isn’t even perceptible to the human eye.”
He continued, “But you clock it when you’re watching Tom Cruise run. There’s something very human about it because he’s actually doing it. So we found that in order for it to be realistic, I had to run around on the treadmill just to make it inconsistent. It was super interesting. You’re welcome.”
Scott added that “Severance” director and executive producer Ben Stiller “also has an affinity for Tom Cruise.”
Scott’s “Parks and Recreation” co-star and podcast host Rob Lowe cited their “mutual appreciation” for Cruise, saying that Scott “finally got [his] moment to pay homage to the Master.”
Could Cruise make a “Severance” cameo for Season 3? We already know that Barack Obama was too busy to lend his voice to Season 2 (Keanu Reeves instead took the role), but perhaps Cruise post-“Mission Impossible” could make his way to Lumon….
