Tom Cruise speaks out on playing Iron Man before Robert Downey Jr. got the part

Tom Cruise rejected rumours that he was nearly cast as the lead in Iron Man before Robert Downey Jr. got the coveted role.

The Top Gun: Maverick star, 60, addressed the rumours of playing the iconic Marvel hero during an interview with Phase Zero. While he didn’t deny that he was up for the role, but denied he was ever ‘close to getting it.’

“Not close, not close,” Cruise confirmed. “I love Robert Downey Jr., and I can’t imagine anyone else doing that role, and I think it’s perfect for him.”

Meanwhile, the Mission Impossible star didn’t shut down the chance of someday appearing in a superhero film. “I look at a movie and think, you know, I don’t rule anything out,” he added.

According to Cruise, if a Marvel or DC script came his way, he’d evaluate it the same way he always has.

“It’s ‘What’s the story? What’s the character?'” he explained. “Does it interest me? Do I feel this is what an audience would like to see me in? What can I learn, and what can I contribute? That’s really how I look at things.”

Cruise’s statement comes nearly a year after Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness screenwriter Michael Waldron revealed to Rolling Stone that Cruise was pitched to play a variant of Tony Stark in the 2022 film.