Tom Cruise gets bizarrely shaded by Raiders coach Jon Gruden in rant over $100 million contract
When it comes to the highest paid actors in Hollywood, there is little doubt over Tom Cruise's ranking. With a career spanning over 30 years, the actor has starred in at least 46 movies including some of the biggest blockbusters such as the Mission Impossible franchise, 'Top Gun', 'Jack Reacher', 'War of the Worlds' and so on. At the age of 56, in fact, he recently reprised his action-savvy role as Ethan Hunt in the sixth installment of the 'Mission Impossible' series, adding to the big bucks.
With a three-decade-long glorious career and numerous box office hits, it doesn't come as much of a surprise that at present Cruise's net worth stands at a whopping $470 million. While most fans won't complain, it looks like a certain Oakland Raiders coach is not too pleased about it. In a bizarre rant over who's earning the millions, coach Jon Gruden took a sly jab at the Hollywood star, suggesting that the actor is making "plenty of money" even though his movies are apparently not that good.
“I’m not making $100 million, just so you know,” said Gruden addressing the reports about his $100 million contract with Raiders owner Mark Davis, a sum deemed as the biggest ever for an NFL coach. While trying to dodge the questions about his eye-watering salary, though, Gruden went on to shade Cruise, who in his opinion is making much more money than him.
“Well, I never thought Tom Cruise, never thought his movies were any good but he’s making plenty of money. There’s a lot of things that I don’t understand. No disrespect to Tom Cruise. I’m sure he’s a great actor,” the NFL coach continued, "But you know what? You just go about your life as hard as you can. You try to find something you love and you do the best you can at it. I never got into coaching for the money. I got into coaching because I wanted to be a quarterback coach. What the salary cap has become, what free agency has become—it’s amazing.”
A little out of the context, the rant seemed to be directed at the Mission Impossible star solely because of his high box office success. Indeed, in the past month alone, Cruise has made the big bucks thanks to the soaring collection of his last release, 'Mission: Impossible - Fallout'. After opening to an impressive $61 million weekend, the film has continued to meet all box office expectations, earning a projected $10 million in its fourth weekend and on its way to crossing the $500 million mark globally.
'Mission: Impossible - Fallout' reunited Cruise with his 'Rogue Nation' director Christopher McQuarrie. Henry Cavill, Rebecca Ferguson and Simon Pegg also co-starred.