Tom Cruise’s Origin Myth: Bound In Leather

This is it! The East Coast has already watched the first of two up-close-and-personal hours with Tom Cruise on The Oprah Winfrey Show, and we’ve taken the liberty of pulling a preview of what you’ll see in just a little over an hour. Feel free to move on if you’d rather be surprised. It begins with a tour of the actor’s Telluride home (we’re in a superstar’s vacation home! Don’t touch anything!), with Oprah inquiring about a bookshelf containing a leather-bound copy of every script he’s ever made, Tom’s margin notes included. (”More intensity!!!” “What’s Brian Flanagan’s motivation, beyond mixing the perfect Mai Tai?” “YEss, or yeESS? See what works…”)

He then reads aloud the original stage direction for the scene that would ultimately launch him to superstardom: the Risky Business “Old Time Rock N Roll” dance sequence, during the the shooting of which Cruise, just 19 at the time, got on all fours and waxed the floor to a slippery, high sheen to help facilitate his big, pantless entrance. More as it comes…

• Oprah.com