Paramount Pictures
Tropic Thunder is one of the defining comedies of the 2000s, and that’s in no small part due to the scene-stealing role played by Tom Cruise. Cruise played Les Grossman, a ruthless Hollywood executive whose willing to trade Stiller’s character’s life for money, in the film.
As Ben Stiller tells it, he and Tom Cruise stayed in touch after filming a parody videos for the MTV Video Movie Awards in which Stiller impersonated Cruise as his stunt double.
While this is a story Ben Stiller has told before, he told it on New Heights podcast with Jason and Travis Kelce so it’s been making the rounds on social media.
“I called him and said, ‘Are you interested in this movie?’, and he looked [at the script] and said, ‘You make fun of the actors, you make fun of everybody, the agents and all that, but you don’t make fun of the studio heads. You should have a studio head!'” Stiller, who was on the podcast to promote the critically-acclaimed second season of Severance, explained.
“So it was his idea, that character. That character did not exist before he suggested it. And then it became such an important part of the story. And this was three months before we started shooting the movie.”
‘You make fun of the actors, you make fun of everybody, the agents and all that, but you don’t make fun of the studio heads. You should have a studio head!’
After Tom Cruise read Ben Stiller’s early script for Tropic Thunder, he came up with the idea for Les Grossman👍 pic.twitter.com/MEG2PeBO8a
— 까시 (@thingstocarefor) March 19, 2025
Stiller has also previously revealed to Cruise had two requests for playing Les Grossman: he wanted to have giant, hairy hands and forearms, and he wanted to dance. Both of those things happened to hilarious effect.
In addition to Stiller and Cruise, Tropic Thunder famously featured an all-star cast that included Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr., Jay Baruchel, Steve Coogan, Nick Nolte, Danny McBride, Matthew McConaughey, Bill Hader, and more.
Tropic Thunder is currently streaming on Paramount+.