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It seems South Africa has found a special place in Tom Cruise’s heart. During the recent 34th Producers Guild Awards held in Los Angeles, the last remaining mega-superstar had only good things to say about our little corner on the southern end of Africa.

Calling Mzansi an““ ‘absolutely stunning place’, the Top Gun star used our philosophy of ubuntu to emphasise his gratitude towards his peers.

“I just got back from filming in South Africa. It’s an absolutely stunning country and there’s a beautiful philosophy – Ubuntu – that originated there. And it is the idea that humanity is based on the plural, not the singular. Ubuntu means essentially: I am because we are. And so I thank all of you. I am because you are, thank you.”

Despite our ubuntu having taken a few knocks during the last few years, it’s good to know that it still has meaning for those who visit our shores.  Cruise received the David O. Selznick Achievement Award for his ‘outstanding body of work in motion pictures’. Previous recipients include Brad Pitt, Steven Spielberg and Michael Douglas.

The world’s most bankable Scientologist used the opportunity to thank his fellow producers for allowing him to live the life he has had.

“You enabled me the adventurous life that I’ve wanted. I’ve been able to travel the world and work and watch films in so many countries to share in their cultures and realize how much we all have in common, and to admire our differences.”

Steven Speilberg was recently quoted as saying that Tom Cruise might have saved the industry’s ass with Top Gun: Maverick. Despite their rumoured feud that lasted for 20 years, the producer was quoted as saying that Cruise ‘saved the entire theatrical industry’.

Steven Spielberg tells Tom Cruise that “you saved Hollywood’s ass and you might have saved theatrical distribution. Seriously, ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ might have saved the entire theatrical industry.” pic.twitter.com/nPWR5BqiUV

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) February 14, 2023

Have a look at Cruise’s acceptance speech below, with the SA shoutout at the 30-second mark.

Despite his association with the cultish Scientology, the infamous couch-jumping incident and perhaps his opinions on psychiatry, Cruise remains one of the last mega superstars of Hollywood, and few of us can remember a year without a Cruise movie being released.

The fact that he gushed about South Africa makes him even more of a star.

[sources:sapeople&bestlifeonline]