The Real Story Behind Claims That Paul Thomas Anderson Praised Tom Cruise to End Their Feud

Paul Thomas Anderson may have just tossed Tom Cruise a surprise compliment in his new movie, and now everyone is trying to read the tea leaves. Is this a wink, an olive branch, or just a killer line in the middle of a car chase? Here is what actually happened, plus the history that makes it interesting.

The line that lit the fuse

"Have no fear like Tom f***ing Cruise."

That is Benicio del Toro's character, mid-chase, hyping up Leonardo DiCaprio in Anderson's One Battle After Another. It is a pretty unambiguous shout-out to Cruise's whole death-defying brand, and fans immediately took it as Anderson giving props to the action legend.

Why that one line matters

Anderson and Cruise have history. Good history first: they worked together on Magnolia back in 1999, which earned Cruise an Oscar nomination and made everyone think they'd team up again. Then came The Master (2012). Anderson had been developing it for years, and the story follows a charismatic leader, Lancaster Dodd, and his movement, The Cause. A lot of people saw that as a thinly veiled riff on Scientology and its founder, L. Ron Hubbard — not ideal when the world's most famous Scientologist is your former collaborator.

According to reporting at the time, Anderson screened The Master for Cruise before release out of respect. Insiders claimed Cruise was upset by specific scenes, especially one where Dodd's son, Val, says the group's teachings were invented. That line echoed something Hubbard's own son, Ronald DeWolf, once said in an archived interview: "99% of what my father ever wrote or said about himself is totally untrue."

None of this turned into a public brawl, but the whispers never really stopped. Anderson shut down questions with: "It's between us," and the two haven't worked together since.

Did the Church push back on The Master?

Yes, according to Harvey Weinstein, who distributed the film. He told the BBC that once word got out about the story, unnamed Scientologists tried to halt or soften the movie, applying "lots of pressure." He said he wasn't "going to acquiesce," and neither was Anderson. That is a very Hollywood backstory — the kind you usually hear years later over drinks — but it tracked with the way people were already reading the film.

What Anderson has actually said

Publicly, Anderson kept insisting The Master was "pure fiction" and not designed to attack anyone. He also pushed back on the breathless speculation, telling Screen Daily that we live in an era where a whiff of a plot gets blown up into certainty, and once people saw the movie, many realized "it isn't about Scientology." As for the heat from the Church? He downplayed it, saying the hardest part of filmmaking is getting good material and having more good days than bad — and that Scientology was the least of their problems. He also confirmed Cruise saw The Master and added: "It's something between us. Everything is fine, though."

So, is this a truce?

Anderson hasn't explained the new line, and he doesn't seem like he's about to. Maybe it's a playful nod to Cruise's daredevil mythos. Maybe it's a peace signal. Or maybe it's just a great, in-character pump-up line during a chase that also happens to double as a headline. Either way, one cheeky compliment doesn't magically undo a decade-plus of rumor and distance — but it is the most public, positive name-check Anderson has given Cruise in years, and fans clocked it immediately.

Quick refresher on One Battle After Another

• Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
• Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Teyana Taylor, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall
• Runtime: 2h 50m
• IMDb: 8.3/10
• Rotten Tomatoes (so far): 95%

Bottom line: the internet is buzzing about a potential thaw between one of Hollywood's boldest directors and its most fearless star, and the timing — given their complicated past — is undeniably juicy. Do you think The Master was really about Scientology, or did the speculation run away with the narrative?

One Battle After Another is in theaters worldwide right now.