Tom Cruise Will Always Regret Turning Down This Role

Back in the early 2000s, Cruise was circling A Beautiful Mind — the prestige drama that would go on to win four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Russell Crowe. Cruise was interested, and reportedly wanted the part. The problem? Scheduling. He was already committed to Cameron Crowe's Vanilla Sky, which was filming at the same time.

Now Vanilla Sky isn't exactly a flop — it made over $200 million worldwide and came with a Paul McCartney song, no less — but in hindsight, it's no contest. A Beautiful Mind had the kind of awards-season magic Cruise hasn't touched since Magnolia. And watching Crowe slowly unravel as John Nash, the math genius battling schizophrenia, it's easy to see why Cruise might still be kicking himself.

It's not that Cruise couldn't have done it — the guy had just wrapped Eyes Wide Shut with Kubrick. He had the acting chops. He had the intensity.

But by the early 2000s, Cruise's career had clearly split in two: there was actor Cruise (the one who did Born on the Fourth of July, Magnolia, The Firm), and there was stuntman Cruise (basically anything Mission: Impossible onward).

Since then, the stuntman side has mostly dominated. Sure, we still get the occasional dramatic swing — like Collateral, Tropic Thunder, or even the underrated American Made — but A Beautiful Mind could've been the perfect pivot point: a major dramatic role, with awards momentum, at the exact right moment.

Instead, he ended up in a psychological sci-fi remix with Penélope Cruz and Cameron Diaz yelling "open your eyes."

To be fair, Cruise hasn't exactly suffered. He's still one of the biggest movie stars on Earth, Top Gun: Maverick printed money, and the Mission: Impossible series keeps going strong. But A Beautiful Mind? That's the one that got away.

And every actor — even Tom Cruise — has one.