Why Tom Cruise Deserved to Be Called Out

Tom Cruise is, or used to be, America's go-to action hero. He's played an aviator, a lieutenant, a secret agent, and a whole excess of other poised-to-shoot leading men. But the key word here is played. Mark Wahlberg reminded his fellow actor of this very important difference Tuesday night in Los Angeles. Marky Mark was scheduled to speak at AFI fest, and when questioned about Cruise's comments comparing himself to a member of the military, Wahlberg had some choice words for Cruise. He responded to the question by saying:

"For actors to sit there and talk about 'oh I went to SEAL training? I don't give a f**k what you did. For somebody to sit there and say 'my job was as difficult as being in the military.' How f**king dare you, while you sit in a makeup chair for 2 hours... I don't give a s**t if you get your ass busted. You get to go home at the end of the day. You get to go to your hotel room. You get to order your f**king chicken."

Those are a lot of expletives for a casual night out to celebrate American films. But let's face it, the Boogie Nights actor has a point. For Cruise, or any actor, to make the comparison to being a member of the military is, in a word, selfish. Sure, actors are put in harm's way every day, just like pedestrians are put in danger when they decide to jaywalk instead of use the crosswalk. But are they in constant fear of their lives 24/7? Probably not.

Wahlberg's comments were prompted by documents obtained by TMZ where Cruise said some of his location shoots are like serving a term in Afghanistan: "That's what it feels like. And certainly on this last movie, it was brutal. It was brutal," he said.

But it gets better. Not only does he compare his job to that of a solider's, he claims his training is harder than an Olympic athletes. No really. "There is difficult physical stamina and preparation. Sometimes I've spent months, a year, and sometimes two years preparing for a single film." The kicker? "A sprinter for the Olympics, they only have to run two races a day. When I'm shooting, I could potentially have to run 30, 40 races a day, day after day."

YOU'RE SUCH A FIGHTER TOM. THANK YOU FOR SERVING OUR COUNTRY!

Sigh. In other news, you got through this entire post without reading the word "scientology" once. So, congratulations!

Image: Mashable