The Controversial '80s Movie That Gave Tom Cruise His Hollywood Start

Tom Cruise is Hollywood's last great movie star, and audiences don't know what will happen to cinema when he calls it quits. Despite making a name for himself as an action juggernaut, he got his start with the romantic drama "Endless Love." Dig deeper into the '80s film, and viewers will find it to be one of the most controversial movies Cruise has starred in. "Endless Love" follows two teenagers, Jade (Brooke Shields) and David (Martin Hewitt), who fall in love despite a two-year age gap — "She is 15, He is 17," the film's tagline says. 

"Endless Love" was a major role for Shields, but the actor has opened up about the way director Franco Zeffirelli treated her. In the 2023 Hulu documentary "Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields," she detailed how Zeffirelli's behavior on set was inappropriate and manipulative during a sex scene. "Zeffirelli kept grabbing my toe and twisting it, so I had a look of, I guess, ecstasy. But it was more angst, than anything, because he was hurting me," she remembered. 

The documentary features archival footage of an interview where Zeffirelli explains why he twisted Shields' toe during the intimate scene. "When I had the camera on her, she was not giving the impact that the scene required," the director said. "So she was there, and the camera was here, so I grabbed her toe and twisted it, and she screamed, 'Ah!'" he continued. 

Shields expressed her distaste for the situation in the documentary, saying, "The physicality and the exploration of sexuality felt really dangerous to me, and I didn't trust the director to create a safe environment for me." 

It's disappointing to hear that Brooke Shields was treated so poorly and inappropriately on the "Endless Love" set. In hindsight, it's also quite damning to see how the late director discussed both Shields and Tom Cruise. In an interview with The Washington Post, Franco Zeffirelli praised Cruise (who only had a small part in the 1981 flick) as an actor. "Tom Cruise is lovely. I cried and laughed in 'Top Gun,' but if you observe him carefully the boy knows all the tricks. He smiles at the right moments," the filmmaker said. Decades after Zeffirelli's interview, Cruise is still trucking along as Maverick, and has made a staggering amount of money from the "Top Gun" sequel. 

On the other hand, Zeffirelli's comments about Shields' performance are disheartening, especially when one considers how her popularity helped the film gross $31 million domestically. The director told The Washington Post that directing Shields was like "cracking the whip at a limping horse." "Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields" does a brilliant job of shedding light on how female stars were (and continue to be) exploited by Hollywood for the sake of entertainment. 

Franco Zeffirelli has received considerable criticism in recent years for his on-set actions and behavior. His 1968 adaptation of "Romeo and Juliet" features scenes that would not be okay to film today. In 2023, the lead actors in "Romeo and Juliet" launched a lawsuit against the filmmakers for featuring underage nudity, despite Zeffirelli assuring them that that wouldn't happen.

Following the announcement of the lawsuit, Brooke Shields spoke with The New Yorker and discussed the director's methods. "He was not nurturing, not warm by any means," she said, adding, "[He] had this sort of love-hate with my mother, because he couldn't manipulate me and he couldn't own me." Shields continued, "It's interesting, now that the cast of 'Romeo and Juliet' came out about what their experience was, which was fascinating to me." 

The star opened up about how Zeffirelli's presence on set was both commanding and demanding. "You don't say no to him. That was not the way he operated. And he would get angry," she remembered, adding that he would make fun of her on the "Endless Love" set because of her voice.

If you or someone you know may be the victim of child abuse, or has been a victim of sexual assault, please contact the relevant resources below:

• The Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child (1-800-422-4453) or contact their live chat services.
• Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).