New Delhi: Hollywood’s biggest star Tom Cruise as a teenager spent a year at St. Francis Seminary in Cincinnati to become a priest but deep down he knew he had a different role to play--yes, not one but many.
Taking note of the young Cruise’s growing interest in religion, a priest named Father Ric Schneider brought him into the seminary back in the ’70s, The Indian Express reported.
At the time he was living with his mom and sisters after his father walked out on the family— Cruise was just 13.
However, most people today have no idea about the actor’s spiritual leaning in his younger years.
What they know is his keen interest in wrestling at school, toying with the idea of going professional.
Cruise was a devout Roman Catholic, just like his ex-wife Katie Holmes once was.
Cruise’s old schoolmate Shane Dempler told New York Daily News that they had gone to Mass and spent time together in the chapel, enjoying stories that priests told.
‘We thought the priests had a great lifestyle, and we were really into the idea of priesthood,’ Shane Dempler recalled.
After divorce, his mother packed up and moved the kids to Kentucky where at a school Father Ric gave a speech and asked if any student wanted to join seminary, Cruise raised his hand.
But by fall 1976, Cruise was one of 68 freshmen at St. Francis Seminary, where he was the kind who would pull a prank for laughs.
Though not strongest or smartest in the class, his personality according to the priests stood out.
Cruise came to find out his potential when Father Aubert Grieser, the drama and speech teacher, put him on the stage to shake off the fear.
Less than year later, he left the Seminary and eventually ended up appearing on screen in ‘Risky Business’.
His friends from Seminary days were shocked to see him on the screen with many couldn’t believe ‘this wasn’t the kid they prayed with every day.’