Tom Cruise was training to be a Catholic priest but realized he 'loved women too much'
Before entering Hollywood, Tom Cruise had plans to be a priest! The iconic and handsome actor was born and raised in a religious Catholic family. His family has revealed that acting was not Tom's first career preference as he had joined the seminary and had even taken a liking to the life led by priests.
He attended the Franciscan seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio, after he was moved by a speech by Father Ric Schneider when he was just a teenager. "Tom was instantly hooked; I think he wanted a good education. With his parents going through a divorce, it was tough on him, that’s maybe one of the reasons why he came here," Father Schneider told Thethings.com.
READ MORE
Who is Shane Warne's ex-wife Simone Callahan? Australian cricketer dies of 'heart attack' at 52
Even as a youngster, Tom was a devout Catholic. Father Schneider persuaded him to enter St Francis Seminary School as he realized that a free education had caught Tom's attention. But later, Tom's then-best friend, Shane Dempler, revealed that Tom was seriously considering taking up the priesthood. He said, "He has a very strong Catholic faith. We went to Mass, spent time in the chapel, and enjoyed hearing stories from the priests. We thought the priests had a great lifestyle and we were really interested in priesthood." However, Tom almost did not get the opportunity to get into seminary school. The school had an IQ cut-off of 110 and he got exactly that score. Though eventually, he got into the school, he was only in the seminary for two years.
Tom's journey towards priesthood ended when he started breaking the rules. The actor, along with his best friend, used to regularly sneak out and smoke cigarettes. But the duo got into serious trouble when they decided to steal some liquor from the private rooms of the Franciscans. Shane broke into the room and threw a few bottles out of the window for Tom to catch. Though most of the bottles broke, they managed to hold on to a few. Soon, the other seminarians got the information, and several found Shane and Tom consuming the booze in the woods. Soon the Fransicians found them intoxicated, and they admitted how they got the alcohol. Shane said, "The school wrote a letter to our parents saying they liked us both, but would prefer if we didn’t return. So we weren’t kicked out, just preferred not to go."
Tom said that his love for women got into his path of priesthood. He added, "I remember we used to sneak out of the school on the weekends and go this girl’s house in town, sit around, talk and play Spin the Bottle. I just realized how I loved women too much to give that up." So he decided to try his hands at acting and got his first breakout role in the film 'Taps' before he turned 20.