The “Mission: Impossible” star said that his educational film is “very basic” to “have people understand” screen acting.

Tom Cruise explains 6-hour instructional video about acting he showed Glen Powell

The “Mission: Impossible” star said that his educational film is “very basic” to “have people understand” screen acting.

By Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel is a news writer at **. He began writing for EW in 2022.

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September 15, 2026 3:57 p.m. ET

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Glen Powell and Tom Cruise. Credit:

Greg Doherty/Getty

- Glen Powell said that Tom Cruise made a six-hour instructional film about the secrets of screen acting.

- Cruise confirmed the video’s existence, adding that the movie is “very basic.”

- The *War of the Worlds* star reflected on his philosophy regarding mentorship and education.

Tom Cruise is passing down the tricks of his trade.

The *Jerry Maguire* star discussed the contents of his six-hour “film school” instructional movie that he put together to teach younger actors like Glen Powell about how to act on screen.

“It was just very basic,” Cruise told *GQ*. “It was something to have people understand, just to have a different concept of lenses and what the lens is and what the frame is. Just the same way as an actor onstage, or in the development of cinema, where it started, and what that frame means and how to understand that frame.”

He added, “There’s just different layers of storytelling, of structure, but also: to understand certain things so that you can forget about it.”

Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty

Powell, who worked alongside Cruise in *Top Gun: Maverick*, previously said that his costar told him to go to a theater in Los Angeles to watch a video that the *Minority Report* star put together to share his wisdom.

The *Anyone But You *star explained, “[Cruise] is like: ‘Do we all agree that this is what a camera is? This is the difference between a film camera and a digital camera…’ The funniest part is on flying. It was like he put together this entire flight school. So he would literally go ‘OK, this is what a plane is. Here’s how things fly. Here’s how air pressure works.’”

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For Cruise, accumulating and sharing knowledge about the craft of filmmaking is a key part of his life’s work.

“I’m a teacher and I’m a student,” he told *GQ*. “So I’m having to educate people on cinema and movies, and I’m hearing what they think also.”

Cruise emphasized that he wants his mentorship comes from a place of curiosity. “I listen first: What do they want?” he said. “It’s not me. I’m more interested in: What are their goals? What do they want? And it’s not just younger people. This is me when I was a kid. I’m going, ‘What are you interested in?’”

The *Magnolia* star tried to absorb as much information as possible on every movie set starting with his first major role in 1981’s *Taps*. “I’m on the set with great craftsmen as a young kid. And it’s not just 1981, when they’re there,” he said. “It’s where their knowledge comes from — it’s generational. So as you’re making movies, you’re learning from other people and then you’re making it your own.”

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Cruise indicated that he’s always sought to improve the circumstances of the people surrounding him, even when he was a child. “A secret thing I had for myself, which was always: Leave something better,” he reflected. “We lived in rented houses. So it was always like: Make sure that the room is nicer. The classroom, whatever it is. I always had a secret thing of: I want to improve things. I want to improve myself. But not at the detriment of others. So I was always looking, I guess, for what is the greatest amount of creation and the least amount of destruction?”

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