Everyone loves Tom…
The temporary visit of a short but sexy 40-year-old Hollywood movie megastar with a blinding smile, casual clothes and a penchant for surfing. Since the world’s highest-paid actor, Tom Cruise, and the cast and crew filming The Last Samurai quietly took over New Plymouth this year, a change has come about in Nakiwood.
It’s evident in the main drag banners flapping about in the prevailing southwesterly Tasman Sea breezes welcoming the film’s cast and crew to the city; it’s in the shop windows sporting handmade signs that offer Cruise free icecreams and cups of tea; it’s in the way my mother looks up into the brilliant blue sky over New Plymouth Airport at a hovering helicopter and nonchalantly observes, “That’s just Tom”. The gentle fall of Hollywood glitter has seemingly ensconced New Plymouth in a gleaming embrace, and it appears few are insusceptible to its charm.
The producers acknowledge that Tom Cruise has been the secret ingredient to the way in which local people have supported and encouraged the movie. He is, after all, the Hollywood megastar of our time.
Not so much megastar as mega-friendly, if local lore is to be believed. Cruise has sneaked into New Plymouth’s only cinema complex to watch the latest Lord of the Rings movie among locals unaware of his presence. He has helped a family stranded at the side of the road with a flattie. He’s donated $7000 to Urenui Primary School in a now-famous telephone conversation with The Edge radio station’s announcers.
He’s eaten fish and chips with his son Connor (8) on Oakura’s main street, responding cheerfully to the plethora of welcomes from locals passing by. He has reputedly put offers in on the million-dollar coastal mansion he has leased from businessman Grahame Symons for a staggering $5000 a week, and frequently swims and surfs at beaches along the 105km Surf Highway 45. His red-and-black helicopter piloted by New Plymouth’s Matt Newton is a daily sight ferrying Cruise and family across the eight film sets dotted from Oakura to Uruti.
His presence here has given the city a buss, one local journalist says. We’re dreading the day he leaves.
Tour buses now include in their itineraries a slow cruise past Pukekura Park’s cricket pitch, protected by a high concrete wall and covered with a tent city ready for filming. Backpacker hostels say late summer visitor numbers have doubled as enthusiasts hope to get a glimpse of Cruise and his fellow actors.
For now, New Plymouth is humming to the beat of a Hollywood drum, with one of Tinseltown’s most powerful actors constantly hovering overhead. Ask Peter Avery what he hopes Cruise will tell his Hollywood pals about Taranaki, and he doesn’t hesitate in replying. “I just want him to have a good movie. If he is happy, then that is my primary focus and I’ll be satisfied. And maybe another place he can call home.
