Tom Cruise finds a new risky business

LOS ANGELES - For Tom Cruise, it might be another kind of risky business. He plays the shirtless, tattooed rock star Stacee Jaxx in Rock of Ages.

Opening on June 15, the film is a fairly loyal rendition of the Broadway musical, which showcases rock hits from the 1980s. And there's no doubt Cruise is one of the main curiosities.

His portrayal is a change of pace for the A-list action star who is more noted for running and jumping in Mission: Impossible movies than writhing satirically on a rock stage.

"It was a fantastic journey and voyage with him," said director Adam Shankman at the London West Hollywood Hotel, a block from the Sunset Strip's famous rock club, Whiskey a Go Go.

In fact, there was little risky in casting Cruise - for the actor or for the musical comedy.

"I will tell you it was his Tropic Thunder performance that convinced me he could do Stacee Jaxx," said Shankman of Cruise's portrayal of vulgar studio boss Les Grossman. "I never knew he could be so committed to a comic character until I saw him in that film."

Still, Shankman had to convince Cruise he could pull off the part. "And luckily, Tom was a fan of Hairspray," he said, referring to his hit movie musical.

As usual, Cruise immersed himself in the challenge. He took weeks of voice lessons (that's him singing Bon Jovi's Wanted Dead or Alive and Def Leppard's Pour Some Sugar On Me). He also rehearsed stage movements on a regular basis.

"And we decided right from the start that lip-synching would not be an option," the director said. "Tom just blew us away."

Cruise looks the part, too. At various times, his Jaxx character wears a coyote-fur coat, a beaver-felt cowboy hat, tight leather pants with a huge red tin belt buckle, and a self-entitled attitude recalling Guns N' Roses' Axl Rose.

Indeed, Shankman said he made sure Cruise and company looked like they belonged in the 1980s. To do that, the director referenced a few sources, including the 1981 rock documentary, The ! Decline of Western Civilization.

"I also looked at my photo albums from those days, and MTV news clips from the period," said Shankman.

It's not all Cruise all the time. however. The story focuses on waitress Sherrie (Julianne Hough) and busboy Drew (Diego Boneta) who fall for each during the 1980s glam rock scene in L.A.

They are wannabe stars trying to make it in the competitive world of music by helping out at The Bourbon Room, which is a version of L.A.'s legendary Whiskey a Go Go.

30 Rock's Alec Baldwin plays the owner of the club, and comic Russell Brand is the club manager. Catherine Zeta-Jones portrays the mayor's wife who is leading a campaign to shutdown The Bourbon Room, while Paul Giamatti plays Jaxx's manipulative manager.

Many of the actors in the movie have singing and dancing experience.

But Cruise didn't, unless you count his pantomime to Bob Seger's Old Time Rock and Roll in the 1983 teen flick Risky Business.

Hough, who co-starred in last year's successful remake of Footloose, said she was definitely impressed by Cruise's rock star posturing. "After I realized he was going to pull this off in a very convincing way, I thought, "What can't Tom do?'"

Boneta, a former pop star in Mexico, was thrilled to witness first-hand how dedicated Cruise is on set. "He's just as humble as he is talented, which is my favourite combination," said Boneta.

Toronto's Malin Akerman, who co-starred in Watchmen and The Proposal, has one of the funnier and sexier Rock of Ages sequences with Cruise.

She plays a Rolling Stone reporter who gets involved with Jaxx in some backstage hanky-panky. There's lots of groping as they make out while singing Foreigner's I Want To Know What Love Is.

"I was totally game and so was Tom," said Akerman, who fronted the alternative pop band, The Petalstones, early in her showbiz career. "But some of the stuff we improvised was definitely pushing the boundaries of a PG-13 rating."

Singer and rapper Mary J. Blige was n! ew to ac ting, but right at home doing the singing thing. She plays the owner of the Venus strip club, and gets to show her vocal virtuosity. She doesn't have any screen time with Cruise, but she relates to the dysfunctions of his character's warped rock star mentality.

"If you are not confident (in the music business), you will lean on the people who are lying to you," she said.

Certainly, Cruise was secure enough. He did a rendition of Pour Some Sugar On Me in front of Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott, who was visiting the set at the Ft. Lauderdale rock venue Revolution Live passing for The Bourbon Room.

Apparently, Cruise wasn't fazed by the special guest.

"Tom doesn't know nervous," said Shankman. "He knows preparation."

Rock of Ages opens June 15.

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