UK: Tom Cruise attends world premiere of "Lions for Lambs" at London's Leicester Square

Hollywood star Tom Cruise went on a two-and-a-half-hour walkabout on Monday (October 22) in London's Leicester Square for the world premiere of 'Lions for Lambs'. The film was screening as part of the London Film Festival. The film, set partly in Afghanistan and in which Cruise plays the role of a US senator is one of a dozen Hollywood films being made or set for release which touch on the aftermath of the September 11 attack, and America's foreign policy. Asked whether it was Hollywood's place to examine US foreign policy, Cruise said: "I think that films like this are interesting and important and I think it's anyone's place if they want to do it, we are free to communicate about anything we want and any subject we want so i think it's absolutely correct." He added that he studied no politician in particular for his role, but that he cast his eye on a few, whose names he would never reveal: "I studied many. I'll never tell exactly who but there's many months of research that went into this character to not make him into a caricature but into a human being with real problems and to reflect that idea." The film was directed by Robert Redford who avoided the media by entering and exiting the cinema through the backdoor. Cruise's co-star Meryl Streep was also absent, leaving the 45-year-old actor alone with fellow actors Michael Pena and newcomer Andrew Garfield to please the crowds. Garfield who was born in Los Angeles but has lived in the UK ever since recalled how he was surprised to be cast in a role that was quintessentially American : "I was terrified, I think he was very reluctant to cast me, I think he didn't want to cast me at first just because it's a quintessential American role and if there was any kind of flaw in the accent, if there was any kind of flaw in the physicality of it the audience would be able to see right through it immediately so.." Garfield plays one of Redford's students at university trying to maker sense and understand America's foreign policy post 9/11. Cruise who is promoting the movie at the Rome Film Festival on Tuesday (October 23) returns to Berlin later this week for the German premiere of 'Lions for Lambs'. The actor spent quite a lot of time in the German capital where he has been working on his latest film 'Valkyrie' -a World War II thriller in which Cruise plays would-be Hitler assassin Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg. One scene of the movie had to be re-shot after footage was damaged in processing. Cruise told Reuters Televison that he didn't mind: "I like re-shooting things, any chance I have to reshoot something I'm happy with it." "Lions for Lambs" will released in the UK on November 9.

ITN Source | October 25, 2007

Tags:. .surprised. .processing. .entering. .promoting. .damaged