Rob Lowe claims that Tom Cruise deprived him of two roles he was keen to land: Top Gun and Jerry Maguire. Lowe chose the term "dastardly" to describe the rivalry. He stressed there is no personal bad feeling between them.

Nicole Kidman, Cruise's former wife, has said she was close to leaving acting for him. Both of these remarks place him at the centre of major career turning points for those around him during the 1980s and 1990s.