Tom Cruise was presented with an Academy Honorary Award during the Governors Awards and the Hollywood superstar spoke about the magic of movies and how they define him in an emotional speech.
Cruise, one of the biggest superstars in the world and who is known for larger than life movies like the "Mission Impossible" series and the "Top Gun" franchise, was presented the award by filmmaker Alejandro G. Inarritu, who is directing Cruise in an upcoming film set to release next year.
The actor, 63, paid tribute to all of the people who make films possible, as well as the unifying power of cinema. "The cinema, it takes me around the world," Cruise said in his speech. "It helps me to appreciate and respect differences. It shows me also our shared humanity, how alike we are in so, so many ways. And no matter where we come from, in that theatre, we laugh together, we feel together, we hope together, and that is the power of this art form. And that is why it matters, that is why it matters to me. So making films is not what I do, it is who I am," he said.
Cruise said he still remembers when he fell in love with films and how they ignited a "hunger" within him. "My love for cinema began at a very early age, as early as I can remember...I was just a little kid in a darkened theater, and I remember that beam of light just cut across the room, and I remember looking up, and it seemed to be just exploded on the screen. Suddenly, the world was so much larger than the one that I knew. And entire cultures and lives and landscapes all unfolded in front of me, and it sparked something. It sparked a hunger for adventure, a hunger for knowledge, a hunger to understand humanity, to create characters, to tell a story, to see the world. It opened my eyes."
"It opened my imagination to the possibility that life could expand far beyond the boundaries that I then perceived in my own life. And that beam of light opened a desire to open the world, and I have been following it ever since," he added.
Cruise has been nominated for four Oscars for his performances in "Born on the Fourth of July", "Jerry Maguire" and "Magnolia" and as a producer for "Top Gun: Maverick".