Told to create the character, a young Tom Cruise shaved his head - the Taps director found out when he took his hat off on set
Tom Cruise has admitted a naïve early‑career blunder — shaving his head without permission while filming, leaving his director stunned.
Let me set the scene: Tom Cruise, not yet a megastar, still finding his feet, turning up on the set of Taps in the early 80s. Fresh-faced, keen as mustard, and—unfortunately—sporting a completely shaved head… which absolutely no one had signed off on. This wasn’t some artistic maverick move, either; Cruise genuinely didn’t know you couldn’t just go rogue with the clippers when you’re working on a film. That’s one way to make an impression, I suppose.
In a chat with GQ about the incident, Cruise remembered: “Because he said, ‘Create the character.’ I showed up on set, and I took my hat off and [director Harold Becker] looked at me, and he’s like, ‘What’d you do? You got to tell the director.’ I was like, ‘Oh, sorry.’ Everything was Yes, sir. No, sir. Yes, ma’am. No, ma’am.”
‘Create the character’ — But Don’t Overdo It
Cruise decided to give his character a proper military look for Taps, so he nips out, gets his head shaved, and swaggers back onto set, all proud of himself. Except he got a crash course in film set etiquette instead. Director Harold Becker, not exactly thrilled, pointed out that actors aren’t supposed to make solo decisions that might affect continuity—or, you know, the entire way their character looks.
It’s a classic early-career mishap: the young actor, eager to impress, accidentally skipping the step where you check with anyone in charge. Cruise, who was all ‘Yes, sir; no, sir,’ honestly thought ‘create the character’ meant, well, just get on with it. You can see how that might be confusing if the rules aren’t pinned to the dressing room wall.
Cruise’s Actual Dream Board
Before reliving that particular blunder, Cruise had spoken about the big picture—his aspirations, ambitions, the kind of stuff you’d scribble on notes stuck to your bedroom mirror. He was always chasing something more than just fame; what Cruise wanted was to actually make movies, see the world, and connect with real people. He started observing everything on the film set: every department, every moving bit of production. He said that he used to write his dreams up on a board, but stardom for its own sake wasn’t the aim—it was about learning and living as much as possible.
As Cruise described it: “But I’ve talked to many people, and they’re like, ‘Sometimes you’ve got to keep things to yourself.’ And those dreams, I’d write them on a board, and I had them on my wall. And it wasn’t: I want to be famous.”
Back to Taps: Just So You Know
If you’ve not seen Taps, the film is a military school thriller: greedy developers want to bulldoze a military academy, but the students take a stand—by literally taking over the campus. It’s not one of those ‘quiet resistance’ numbers, more of an all-out teenage rebellion with rifles and barricades. Cruise, yes, complete with his closely shaved head, plays one of the cadets in the centre of the standoff.