Intimacy coordinators weren’t really a “thing” until recently, which could be why so many actors have been speaking up about their negative set experiences. Aside from logistical stuff, intimacy coordinators help block scenes so that no unfortunate accidents occur. Obviously, this did not happen in the ’80s, where there was a whole different set of rules and dangers, like flailing limbs.
In 1988’s Cocktail, Tom Cruise stars as an overly-confident businessman who bartends at night. Eventually he meets Coral (played by Gina Gershon) and his business partner bets that he can’t sleep with her, so he does. It’s the ’80s! But in real life, it wasn’t that simple.
Gershon was recently on Watch What Happens Live! where she admitted that she almost severely injured Cruise way back when. At one point, Gershon told Cruise that she was “very ticklish” which was her first mistake.
“I told him, at one point, he starts off under the covers, and I told him I was very ticklish, I said ‘No, no, don’t ever do that,'” she explained. “In one take I have to say, I think he wanted a reaction, he grabbed my stomach and I kneed him right in the nose.” Imagine an alternate universe in which his Born of the Fourth of July character had a crooked nose? History would not have been the same.
Gershon was mortified that she had potentially ruined Cruise’s million dollar face. “I was like, ‘Oh, my God, I just broke Tom Cruise’s nose,'” she said. “He’s like ‘No, no you told me.’ I was like, ‘I’m so sorry,’ he was like, ‘No, it was my fault.’”
Luckily, Cruise survived, and has since tried just about every dangerous stunt in the book, so that dangerous encounter with Gershon might be what inspired him to jump out of planes and do all that other stuff. Or maybe he just learned not to tickle people.
(Via People)
