Tom Cruise is a worldwide phenomenon, but his weird teeth in The Outsiders still act as a bit of an embarrassing spot in his career. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, this movie is a coming-of-age crime drama revolving around teenagers.
Cruise is generally the ultimate movie star and an action cinema icon. He’s been acting for over 40 years and has a varied filmography that is probably unmatched in any movie industry.
Cruise is one of the highest-paid actors of all time and that’s for good reason. That is because the superstar is also one of the highest-grossing box office superstars in history. His film has grossed over $11.5 bn worldwide, and as a result, he’s climbed the ranks to become one of the most influential actors in Hollywood.
The four-time Academy Awards nominee has shattered a number of box-office records over the course of his career. However, the biggest one came through his last movie – Top Gun Maverick. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic destroying the theatre-visiting culture, Cruise ensured to hold the release of the movie for over a year.
But it turned out to be a masterstroke, with Maverick being his highest-grossing film and grossing nearly $1.5 bn! Moreover, the film is also regarded as the one to ‘save cinema’ – because it literally helped reinvigorate people’s love for watching movies in theatres and saved many theatres from going bankrupt too.
While the whole world goes gaga over his recent accomplishments, some old-school Tom Cruise fans can’t get one particular film of his out of their heads. It’s not really a popular one, but the third film of his career – which is The Outsiders.
Something about the appearance of his character in the said film continues to haunt fans to this day.
What is up with Tom Cruise’s teeth in The Outsiders?
Tom Cruise’s teeth in the Outsiders is among the most memorable aspects of his character Steve Randle, a cocky member of ‘The Curtis Gang’ – a prominent group that is featured throughout the course of the movie.
Randle works at a gas station and has a speciality in fixing up cars. But it’s something about Cruise’s teeth in the movie which somehow managed to make him a perfect fit for this ‘greasy’ character.
While the character hardly brandishes a smile in the movie, his weird behaviour does result in his real 3 front teeth being shown to the audience. Normally, not a lot of people have three frontal teeth – but Cruise did at a point in time.
The teeth are clearly misaligned and one would want the character to visit the dentist to get his jawline fixed. There has been a lot of debate about whether Cruise’s teeth in this film were fake or real. Considering the number of prosthetics often used in Hollywood movies, there is little telling what is real and what indeed is fake.
Fans Still Can’t Get Over Tom Cruise’s Teeth in The Outsiders after 40 Years
There has been a lot of noise over Tom Cruise’s teeth over the course of his career. But early in his career, Cruise had naturally misaligned teeth because of an accident suffered when being hit by a hockey puck. With The Outsiders just being his third movie, Cruise’s early teeth can be seen in all their glory in this one.
To make his character look more authentic and ‘streetwise’, a young Cruise voluntarily took off a cap on his front teeth which were chipped. That is exactly why his character’s teeth look so asymmetrical and not normal at all.
There is a clear gap in the off-center part of his front tooth and his 3 front teeth are in pretty bad shape. Steve has some over-the-top dialogues in the film which Cruise pulls off brilliantly, while his teeth are also noticeable when he’s just looking smugly at someone.
With the film set to celebrate its 40th anniversary of release on 25th March, some of its biggest fans appear to be ‘celebrating’ it in their own way by reminiscing about Cruise’s 3 front teeth and weird appearance.
Some fans have used it as a joke for their own misery, while some are simply haunted by how weird he looks in that film as a 20-year-old. It’s probably safe to say that the Hollywood actor has come a long way in his career after breaking through in the industry after this film.
Did Tom Cruise get his teeth fixed after The Outsiders?
Tom Cruise clearly understood that he wouldn’t really be able to go far into his career in Hollywood with a chipped tooth or cover it up using a cap for long. So, after gaining stardom in the movie industry and some decent money for himself, the actor quickly got his teeth fixed.
He probably spent a bit of a fortune on his dental realignment, fixing all his misaligned teeth and getting his 3 front teeth fixed as well. He even took his time in doing so. During the red carpet of his hit 2002 movie ‘Minority Report’, Cruise turned up to the premiere wearing braces to hold his teeth together in an aligned shape.
While most would relate braces to be worn by teenagers, Cruise had to do it because his teeth were causing him major problems. He joked about it on the David Letterman show once, saying: “I couldn’t close my mouth properly for years, so they (dentists) finally said, ‘please, shut your mouth.’”
Considering that his smile became a thing that made his biggest fans twirl, his decision to properly fix up his teeth was a very good decision.
There could be a Before and After comparison done between what his teeth condition was in The Outsiders compared to how it is now, or even during the peak of his career. The Mission Impossible star, who is known for pulling off death-defying stunts for the movie and even getting badly injured at times, seems to have preserved his teeth after his childhood incident.
Cruise has a really popular ‘laughing meme’ that is a bit of a viral one on social media. In it, he is almost smiling like a hyena with all his teeth for the world to show – which is a great example of how well he got himself fixed up after breaking through in The Outsiders.