Hollywood star Tom Cruise, who is widely nicknamed “Mr. Nice Tom” by the local media for the friendly manners he has shown during his previous visits to Korea, said he loves his nickname and was excited to bring the fourth installment of his famous “Mission Impossible” series to the country.

“I just want to say I love coming here and I love my nickname -- thank you,” the Hollywood star told reporters during a press conference held at Grand Hyatt Seoul Friday. 

“I didn’t know I had a nickname and it was so nice last night to be greeted at the airport...I feel lucky to be able to do what I love to do,“ Cruise added. ”I remember I wanted to make movies since I was a little kid. So to be able to travel to places and be here in Korea is a dream come true for me, truly.”

Cruise, 49, arrived in Seoul on Thursday as a part of his world promotional tour of the upcoming Mission Impossible film. His co-star Paula Patton and Academy Award-winning director Brad Bird, who is best known for his 2004 animated superhero-flick “The Incredibles,” joined Cruise during the press meeting.

In the upcoming film, officially titled “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol,” Cruise stars as an Impossible Mission Force agent who goes rogue after being framed for a terrorist bombing in Moscow. The movie features the world’s tallest building -- Dubai’s 828-meter Burj Khalifa -- and Cruise showcases some epic, death-defying stunts atop the skyscraper.

“Burj Khalifa stunt was challenging,” Cruise told reporters. “We spent months and months figuring out how to do it. Brad Bird came up with this idea and designed it. And I was very excited and could not wait to do it. It took many months to figure out how to do it physically. We spent many, many days and when it was over I did not want it to end, because it was a lot of fun.”

To this, director Bird humorously replied. “Yeah, he wasn’t ‘Nice Mr. Tom’ when we asked him to come down from the building,” he said. “It was the only time when I saw him get mad.”

Meanwhile, Paula Patton, who made a huge turn from the sympathetic, caring teacher in an alternative high school in Lee Daniel’s 2009 drama “Precious” to the fierce IMF agent, said she enjoyed shooting her scenes in palaces in India the most.

“It was a glamorous moment,” the actress, who clearly looked excited throughout the conference, told reporters. “And I did get to be a bit of bad, fierce chick. It was really fun.”

Cruise, who said he’d like to retire “when he turns 100,” once again proved that he is still “Mr. Nice Tom” by the end of the conference, by helping the hotel janitors move tables off the stage for the photo call.

This visit marks Cruise’s fifth trip to Korea. His first trip took place in 1994, during his world promotion tour of “Interview with Vampire.” Cruise made his last visit to Korea three years ago, to promote “Valkyrie.”

Cruise attended a red-carpet event at Yeongdeungpo Times Square on Friday night, along with Patton and Bird. The trio left for India, their next destination of the tour, on Saturday morning.

“Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol” opens in theaters in Korea on Dec. 15.


By Claire Lee
(dyc@heraldcorp.com)