He is regularly mocked on social media…<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”Black Han Sans|||on|||||” text_text_color=”#000000″ header_4_font=”|||on|||||” header_4_text_align=”center” text_orientation=”center” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]
Words by Nikki Peach<\/strong><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/02\/imago753804206-scaled.jpg” alt=”Jennifer Aniston” title_text=”Tom Cruise during the passing of the Olympic flag between Paris and Los Angeles during the cLosing ceremony of the Paris” force_fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″] \u2018What has Tom Cruise done to his face?\u2019 is a question that seems to do the rounds on the internet every time the actor is seen in public. Most recently, interest in Cruise\u2019s face was prompted by his advert during the Super Bowl where he discussed the \u2018impossible mission\u2019 of winning the NFL title.<\/p>\n Cruise was simply doing his job and reading his lines, but, sadly, as an A-list actor whose appearance has dared to change since he first became famous at the tender age of 20, that\u2019s all it takes to spark a debate about whether he has had plastic surgery.<\/p>\n Reports swiftly followed that \u2018fans were stunned by Cruise\u2019s changing face\u2019 and left \u2018gobsmacked by the debut of his \u201cstretched\u201d face\u2019. The headline of another trending story reads, \u2018Inside Tom Cruise\u2019s $15k cosmetic glow up gone wrong\u2019, while another points to fans\u2019 supposed \u2018health concerns\u2019.<\/p>\n On social media, the picture was an even grimmer one. \u2018Tom Cruise looks like Tom Cruise is wearing a Tom Cruise skin suit,\u2019 offers one mocking post. \u2018Tom Cruise has had more work done than a Beverly Hills housewife,\u2019 reads another. A third asked, \u2018Why does Tom Cruises\u2019 face look weird, like AI or something?\u2019.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a sorry state of affairs if celebrities over the age of 50 can\u2019t even do an advert without having their appearance torn to shreds by strangers on the internet \u2013 or the media at large. Saying that, when the scrutiny is so extreme and the response is so intrusive, is it any wonder some celebrities do choose to have work done? In many ways, it\u2019s one of their only forms of defence.<\/p>\n Cruise, for his part, has not publicly commented on the response, but that hasn\u2019t stopped fans from speculating about whether he\u2019s had Botox, fillers, a nose job and hair transplants.<\/p>\n In 2012 though, Cruise confirmed he hadn\u2019t had cosmetic surgery and wouldn\u2019t ever get it in the future. A source later told Touch Weekly<\/em> that the Mission: Impossible<\/em> actor was \u2018terrified\u2019 of going under the knife and \u2018looking like a caricature of himself\u2019. It\u2019s as if he could already hear the internet trolls of the future in his ear.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_font=”Libre Bodoni|||on|||||” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#333333″ header_2_font_size=”40px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″] Our societal perception of ageing is so warped that we spend our youthful years \u2018terrified\u2019 of what we might look like when we\u2019re older, only to be mocked and scorned whether we choose to age naturally or not. There is no way to win. We are still incapable of accepting that people\u2019s appearances change with time \u2013\u00a0and we do not have a right to know how, what or why just because we\u2019re interested.<\/p>\n Last year, the Super Bowl advert gig fell to former Friends<\/em> co-stars Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer, who unsurprisingly both faced a similar fate. While most people were excited to see Ross and Rachel share the same screen again after 20 years, plenty of voices on social media were quick to call the actors \u2018unrecognisable\u2019 and speculate about whether they\u2019ve had cosmetic surgery.<\/p>\n Aniston has a particularly rough time of it \u2013 as all women in Hollywood do. For all the heat Cruise gets about his appearance, it doesn\u2019t come close to that experienced by his female counterparts.<\/p>\n During a recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel<\/em>, Aniston was asked about the bogus rumour that she is secretly dating Barack Obama. Someone reshared the clip on X and wrote, \u2018Let\u2019s put aside Jennifer Aniston being with Barack Obama and ask ourselves what the hell happened to her face? Her timeless beauty has turned into a train wreck. Wow.\u2019 Her trolls know no rest. And what exactly is \u2018timeless\u2019 beauty? Is it only beauty that defeats time?<\/p>\n Cruise\u2019s ex-wife Nicole Kidman is also regularly mocked for her alleged \u2018Botox face\u2019, even if she\u2019s glorified for it too. Not only is the discourse in all these instances intrusive, but it is in large part coming from a malicious place. Most people posting about Cruise\u2019s face on social media or commenting on Kidman\u2019s \u2018Botox\u2019 are not doing so out of genuine intrigue \u2013 they are hoping to go viral by tearing these celebrities down.<\/p>\n If people are hellbent on discussing Cruise at all, it would be more justified to discuss his ties with the Church of Scientology. He has been an advocate for the Church since the early noughties, which believes humans are immortal beings and that traumatic events can be removed through \u2018auditing\u2019 otherwise known as classes and teachings from Scientologists.<\/p>\n This alone is more \u2018controversial\u2019 than the fact Cruise has aged. Then there\u2019s his return to cinema on 21 May in Mission: Impossible \u2013 The Final Reckoning<\/em>, the eighth and final film in the Mission: Impossible<\/em> franchise. Not only is Cruise reprising one of his most iconic roles, but he has reportedly continued to do his own stunts. Apparently, there is one sequence in the final film that led Cruise to pass out on a number of occasions. Talk about defying age\u2026<\/p>\n Unfortunately, when Cruise starts the press run for Mission: Impossible<\/em>, it is hard to imagine that the discourse on social media will stick to the film itself \u2013 or even Cruise\u2019s personal beliefs. Instead, people will mockingly ask the same tired questions, and the answers are none of our business.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ divider_position=”center” divider_weight=”2px” module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”0px||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-texts” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|||on|||||” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”] Photo: <\/b>IMAGO<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We need to unpick the response to his Super Bowl appearance. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":6880,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"guestgrazia","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6878"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6910,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6878\/revisions\/6910"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}‘Our societal perception of ageing is warped’\u00a0<\/h2>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]