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Man behind viral Tom Cruise deepfake videos calls the technology ‘morally neutral’

The man behind the viral Tom Cruise deepfake videos on TikTok believes the positive outweighs the negative when it comes to the technology that allows him to so convincingly impersonate the Hollywood superstar.

Miles Fisher, the Cruise lookalike who has fooled millions with his TikTok videos , spoke about the possibilities and downsides of the deepfake technology in an exclusive interview with NBC News correspondent Jacob Soboroff.

"As I find myself the unofficial face of this deep fake movement, it’s important to learn and I’m fascinated by this," Fisher told Soboroff on TODAY Tuesday. "This is the bleeding edge of technology."

In a series of digitally manipulated videos, images and audio released earlier this year, it appeared like Cruise himself was showing off magic tricks, working on his golf swing and playing guitar. Except that wasn't the "Mission: Impossible" star at all. It was Fisher.

"I think we’ve created the first deepfake that’s so realistic, that a large majority of people have seen," he said.

Fisher, who bears a strong resemblance to Cruise in real life, said the similarities to the star often hampered him as he tried to make his own way as an actor.

Last year he decided to lean into the connection to Cruise, contacting Belgian visual effects specialist Chris Umé to create the viral Cruise videos for fun. The technology has also improved to the point that what once would've taken Umé weeks to make can now be created much quicker.

"About five days, maximum six days, I could turn around something like this," Umé told Soboroff on TODAY.

Cruise, who did not respond to a request for comment from NBC News, has not asked the duo to stop. Fisher and Umé also have not monetized the TikTok account @deeptomcruise, which has more than 3 million followers.

However, Fisher and Umé are now working together in a company started by Umé called Metaphysic that uses deepfake tech.

"How can we use this technology by creating kind of identity rights?" Fisher said. "Let’s say Tom Cruise gave us the consent for this likeness, where we could move beyond just small parody clips. Everybody gets paid for that intellectual property."

Deepfakes in recent years have also created impersonations of Jennifer Lawrence, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mark Zuckerberg and former President George W. Bush that drew notice.

The potential threat of the technology has been debated in Congress, which raised the specter of its use for political propaganda, fake revenge porn and other nefarious purposes.

“Deepfakes can cause real, concrete harm. Whether that’s a deepfake sex video, or a fake porn video targeting political enemies, or a well-timed deepfake, maybe used to cause harm to an IPO,” University of Maryland law professor Danielle Citron told NBC News ahead of congressional hearings about it in 2019. “And in unrest, if you time it just right, you can incite violence.”

The FBI told NBC News in a statement that it is tracking the technology closely and "will continue to investigate any violations of federal law and actors that may use them for nefarious acts."

Some companies are working on safeguards that will allow people to identify a deepfake like adding data to video and pictures so it will be clear when something has been digitally altered.

Fisher and Umé say they will only take on projects with positive applications.

"The thesis of this company that Chris started begins with ethics," Fisher said.

"I think the technology is morally neutral," he continued. "As it develops, the positive output will so far outweigh the negative, nefarious uses."

Scott Stump is a trending reporter and the writer of the daily newsletter This is TODAY (which you should subscribe to here! ) that brings the day's news, health tips, parenting stories, recipes and a daily delight right to your inbox. He has been a regular contributor for TODAY.com since 2011, producing features and news for pop culture, parents, politics, health, style, food and pretty much everything else.

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Tom Cruise Has a Look-Alike & He Looks Identical to Maverick from 'Top Gun'

Click here to read the full article.

Prepare for a double take. Tom Cruise’s look-alike wore a Top Gun costume to Comic-Con and pretty much fooled everyone there. Jerome LeBlanc, a professional Cruise impersonator from San Diego, California, had fun with his Cruise-esque looks at San Diego Comic-Con last week. Not only did he wear the costume that Cruise’s character LT. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell wears in 1986’s Top Gun , but LeBlanc also went to the exact location where several key scenes in Top Gun were filmed, according to the OC Register.

Per the OC Register, LeBlanc surprised fans at San Diego’s Kansas City Barbeque (where some barroom scenes in Top Gun were shot) on Thursday, July 18, dressed head to toe like Maverick. Dressed in aviator glasses and pilot’s jacket — with his hair pushed back to Cruise’s signature quiff — LeBlanc looked like a dead ringer for the Oscar-nominated actor. ( See photos here .)

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Miles Fisher was photographed July 12 in London. Three of the images of Tom Cruise on these pages are not actually of Tom Cruise but stills from Fisher’s DeepTom TikTok videos. See if you can spot them.

How I Became the Fake Tom Cruise

Miles Fisher had it all: talent, charm and the face of a movie star. Problem was, it was a very specific movie star. After years of resenting the resemblance, Fisher embraced it through viral TikTok deepfakes that demonstrate AI’s astonishing power to deceive.

By Miles Fisher

Miles Fisher

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I wasn’t exceptional in college by any means. I studied English literature because I knew that charm and charisma could influence my overall grade in a way they couldn’t in math and sciences. I sang a cappella in a group whose repertoire was stuck in the 1940s and was a bottom-rung substitute on the squash team.

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Ai or doppelganger for real photo of 3 tom cruises go viral, netizens are baffled.

A new picture of what appears to be Tom Cruise star posing with two lookalikes has gone viral on social media.

— LakshmiRIyer (@LakshmiRIyer)

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Hollywood star Tom Cruise has amassed a massive fan base worldwide with his highly anticipated movies, that consistently rake in millions at the global box office.

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I thought for a moment, hey Tom Cruise (middle guy) looks younger, only to realize all three of these guys are stunt doubles. https://t.co/AXkE06ifrT — Suby #ReleaseSanjivBhatt (@Subytweets) June 8, 2023

Filmmaker Lakshmi R Iyer shared the image, claiming it features three stunt doubles of Tom Cruise from his upcoming action-packed film, "Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One". In the photo, the three men, strikingly similar in appearance to Cruise, stand together with their arms around each other. The photo was accompanied by a tweet stating, "Tom Cruise's stunt doubles at the wrap party of Mission Impossible 7."

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The photo quickly went viral, triggering a debate among netizens regarding its authenticity. Some speculated that it could be an artificially generated image, possibly using AI technology. Others believed that the individuals pictured are indeed members of Tom Cruise's stunt team. This led to humorous remarks from netizens, questioning which one among them is the real Tom Cruise or suggesting they might serve as stunt doubles for the actor's emotional scenes.

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আওয়ামী লীগের ৭৫ বছর: জনগণের দল থেকে ‘বুদবুদে’ বসবাস

একটি রাজনৈতিক দল জনগণের দৃষ্টিতে কেমন, তা জানা বা বোঝার জন্য গুরুত্বপূর্ণ মাপকাঠি হচ্ছে নির্বাচন। কিন্তু, বাংলাদেশে আর গ্রহণযোগ্য নির্বাচনই হয় না।

চট্টগ্রামে আগুনে ৩ জনের মৃত্যু

The Agony and Ecstasy of the World’s Biggest Tom Cruise Impersonator

Evan Ferrante is in the Tom Cruise business, and business is booming. “Busiest and most lucrative year of my adult life,” he tells Inverse .

Four years ago, times were tight for Evan Ferrante, an actor and producer who credibly calls himself the “leading Tom Cruise impressionist in the world.” His phone wasn’t ringing. He had just turned 40 and feared his career spent putting on the Cruise wig and jumping on couches was finally drying up.

“I was still impersonating Cruise, but very seldomly,” recalls Ferrante, now 44, whose stage name is “Not Tom Cruise.” “I had to take on three other side hustles. I’ve never worked so much in my life. I was a Lyft driver. I was a dog walker. I was hustling nonstop.”

These days, Ferrante’s business is still being Tom Cruise — and business is booming. During the first year of the pandemic, he pivoted to Cameo, which kept him and other celeb impersonators afloat. Ferrante was flooded with requests to cheer up bored, quarantined fans on birthdays and holidays — always in character as the Mission: Impossible star — and the response was heartening. (As one of his many five-star reviewers writes, “This was our second awesome video Not Tom Cruise has done for our son who is a military aviator in training. This guy is a total pro!”)

Then, in 2022, as the world was opening back up and Ferrante was resuming live event appearances, Top Gun: Maverick sold out theaters and restored Cruise to mainstream prominence. Ferrante couldn’t believe his luck.

“There wasn’t a day that went by last year that I didn’t receive an offer to perform live or in a commercial, film, TV, etc. — all thanks to Top Gun: Maverick ,” he says. “Busiest and most lucrative year of my adult life.”

A brief perusal of his Cameo videos or TikTok channel confirms that Ferrante, clad in dark shades and a Risky Business -style wig, has Cruise down cold (or at least a “heightened version of Cruise,” as he calls it). The manic delivery, the choked laugh, the abrupt tonal shifts, and high-pitched “ Whoo! ” He can shift seamlessly between Top Gun , Jerry Maguire , and other characters, and he can cater his shtick to current events (a recent video shows him visiting the WGA picket line in character as Cruise, riffing on Magnolia ).

At events, corporate crowds eat him up. “Many treat me like a dancing monkey or a wind-up doll,” Ferrante says. “Many are respectful. A lot of them are just super-pumped to see a Tom Cruise look-alike with them. They want to do all the lines with me. They’re very handsy with me.”

“People turn and look, and they go, ‘Oh, my God, is that Tom Cruise?’” says Colin Paolo, a creative director in the corporate sphere who has hired Ferrante for nearly a dozen events. “These are grown people that will stand in line. I’m never 100 percent sure whether they actually grasp he is an impersonator. I’ve seen grown men — 6-foot-1, 6-foot-2 — on the phone to their wives saying, ‘I’m getting my picture taken with Tom Cruise!’” (Ferrante never aims to deceive anyone, though he says it happens sometimes, especially when he performs overseas.)

Ferrante’s flourishing act speaks to Tom Cruise’s improbable endurance as a bankable — and perpetually youthful — screen icon now entering the fifth decade of his career, with blockbuster movies like Top Gun: Maverick and the upcoming Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One introducing him to new audiences.

It’s also reflective of a parasocial, celeb-obsessed culture in which people are hungry for personalized attention from their favorite stars. As A-listers like Cruise become increasingly sequestered and untouchable, doppelgangers such as Ferrante step in to provide the one-on-one connections with fans that neither the real Cruise, nor creepily realistic deepfake simulations , will.

“It’s just a fascinating character to explore, Tom Cruise,” Ferrante says. “I provide a window into his world, right? It’s almost like Mary Poppins with her bags of endless things. I can dip into this bag, and with enough imagination, I can come up with a thousand scenarios that would be funny with Cruise. You don’t know what Cruise’s life or existence is like, and I’m going to fill in the blanks. I’m going to create this mythology, this lore.”

Ferrante with the real Tom Cruise.

Born 17 years after Tom Cruise, Evan Ferrante was raised by an Italian Catholic father and Russian Jewish mother in Armonk, New York. He became a child actor in the 1980s, appearing in commercials and soap operas, like the short-lived Swans Crossing , but says his ethnically ambiguous features made it hard to book roles.

In 1993, he received his SAG card, but the endless auditions became grueling. “It takes its toll on you psychologically,” Ferrante says. “You lose a little bit of your childhood.”

“I sometimes don’t know where Evan Ferrante begins or ends or Tom Cruise begins or ends.”

In 1997, Ferrante was a freshman at Boston University when his hallmate, an aspiring filmmaker named Alex Merkin, noticed that his voice and mannerisms resembled Tom Cruise’s. “ Jerry Maguire had just come out, and it was doing really well,” recalls Merkin. “I told him he should try to learn some of those lines. So he did, and it was, like, uncanny. Almost immediately, it was insane.”

At the time, Merkin did a bad Jean-Claude Van Damme impression. The two teamed up, aiming to impress girls.

“We would try to break the ice by knocking on doors, and we would both do impressions and try to meet women and go on dates,” says Merkin. “It was so good that everywhere we would go, through the next four years and after, it would be like: ‘OK, do the Tom Cruise impression.’ It would just become a party trick. I actually had him record my voicemail greeting as Tom Cruise.”

Once Ferrante embraced the talent, “it was one of those things where it’s like you have a twin that died in the womb, and it’s like you have an evil twin brother — you can’t escape it,” Merkin says. “He was not going to be able to separate himself from it. Not that he wanted to.”

After graduation, Ferrante was ready to leave his Tom Cruise act behind. He was tired of it. But then came the early YouTube days, which coincided with heavy tabloid interest in Cruise’s couch-jumping exploits. In 2006, at a girlfriend’s urging, Ferrante uploaded a crudely shot “demo reel” of his various Cruise characters to YouTube. The video currently has more than 200,000 views.

“It got the attention of some friends of mine in the industry, who had ideas to create a series around this persona that I created, this heightened version of Cruise,” he says.

Soon enough, Ferrante was hired to portray Cruise in a Funny or Die video series, and his party trick became a career. Since then, Ferrante has performed at countless corporate events, parodied Cruise in commercials and cartoons, and pumped out thousands of Cameo messages (current rate: $100 for a personalized video, $387 for a live video call). Movie studios have even hired him to serve as Cruise’s voice match in early cuts of movie trailers.

At times, he was hard up for cash and said yes to appearances he later regretted. There was, for instance, the demoralizing time he agreed to dance in his tighty-whities at several ’80s-themed nights in the Midwest.

“It was all unhappily married, nicotine-stained women in Dubuque, Iowa, and Fredericksburg, Indiana,” Ferrante recalls. “They were just clawing at my underwear. I felt like a Chippendales dancer.”

“They were just clawing at my underwear. I felt like a Chippendales dancer.”

Sometimes, playing Tom Cruise is a joy. Other times, it’s a source of psychic confusion.

“It’s an identity crisis, like Jekyll and Hyde,” Ferrante says. “I sometimes don’t know where Evan Ferrante begins or ends or Tom Cruise begins or ends.”

Last year, when Top Gun: Maverick came out, Ferrante remembers thinking, “‘How big could this possibly be?’ And it was way bigger than I ever imagined. Almost every day, I’d get some sort of inquiry — mainly corporate appearances. Commercial work, voiceover work. There was an incessant demand for Maverick. And it did not stop for well over a year!”

Recently, Ferrante’s life has been a little like George Clooney’s in Up in the Air , except instead of traveling around the country firing employees, he travels around getting employees fired up — usually in character as Maverick, the ace naval aviator. He’ll play “Danger Zone,” the bombastic Top Gun theme, as his entrance music, and fist-bump all the middle managers as he races up to the stage. Or sometimes he’s in character as Ethan Hunt from Mission: Impossible .

Cruise’s oeuvre “pairs well with corporate America.”

Last year, Ferrante performed at so many corporate events in so many cities that he has to start rifling through his 1099 forms just to remember them all. Much of it’s a blur. There was the Snapchat event, the opening of an Alamo Drafthouse somewhere he can’t recall, the fintech company that flew him in a helicopter and feted him with caviar, and the FedEx event where he was tasked with entertaining FedEx presidents from all over.

“All these events, they’re all properly liquored up,” Ferrante says. “Everyone is pretty three sheets to the wind. They come here to let loose.”

“I’ve used him on ‘Remission: Possible’ for pharmaceutical companies,” says Paolo, the creative director. “In the corporate sphere, not to be catty or anything, but they’re pretty much behind the times — they like things that have been done and proven. Like Hollywood, right? They like Top Gun . They like Mission: Impossible. Risky Business is something that not a lot of them understood. But those other two — and since every two years is a new Mission: Impossible — the world opens up for Evan.”

Cruise’s oeuvre “pairs well with corporate America,” Ferrante observes. “With Top Gun , you have ‘I feel the need…’; Jerry Maguire , ‘show me the money’ for anything in fintech or finance.”

While technology companies pay him handsomely, the tech industry may also be Ferrante’s undoing as artificial-intelligence-generated deepfake software grows increasingly sophisticated. In 2021, a company called Metaphysic worked with a Cruise look-alike named Miles Fisher to create startlingly convincing videos of Cruise teeing off at a golf course, among other activities. It wasn’t really Cruise — just his face digitally “mapped” onto Fisher’s — but the videos fooled countless viewers. (Chris Umé, the co-founder of Metaphysic, did not respond to requests for comment.)

Though Ferrante had nothing to do with those videos, he was initially blamed and had his Instagram account temporarily deactivated. The actor had participated in other deepfake projects previously. “I was probably the very first actor to work with a deepfake technician/engineer,” Ferrante says, referencing a 2019 video in which he helped artificially place Tom Cruise’s face over Christian Bale’s in American Psycho .

Soon, he believes, studios will pay enormous sums to license the digital likeness of famous movie stars in perpetuity. “They’ll pay Tom Cruise $10 billion, whatever, for the forever usage of his likeness. That is certainly coming into being right now. It’s not science fiction.”

Ferrante reenacts an infamous Tom Cruise moment.

Ferrante knows he can’t do this forever. As Rear Adm. Cain (Ed Harris) tells Maverick in the new Top Gun , “The future is coming, and you’re not in it.”

“I’m winding down,” Ferrante says. “I would say I’m in the twilight of my career.”

For one thing, he’s a dad now — he and his partner have a 2-year-old son — and he doesn’t have the same energy he once had. (No, the toddler doesn’t know who Tom Cruise is: “I have this Tom Cruise pillow here. He thinks that’s Daddy,” Ferrante says.)

For another, Ferrante figures he’ll need a more stable income to support his growing family. He now complements his Cruise income by working as a real estate agent for a luxury firm based in Beverly Hills. It’s not exactly clear which is the day job and which is the side hustle.

“One day the phone may stop ringing.”

If Ferrante does hang up his Cruise wig, he wants to go out with a bang. He muses about writing a book someday espousing what he’s learned as a Cruise impersonator and what successful attributes Cruise has that could be parlayed into corporate America. (“It’ll almost be like a mission statement, like from Jerry Maguire .”) He then wants to design a keynote presentation around it and begin presenting his own speech to corporate audiences. He believes Cruise’s “incredible discipline” is the main attribute separating him from the man himself.

For now, Ferrante is just riding the wave of Cruise fever wherever it takes him.

“I was in Chicago a week ago,” he tells me. “I don’t know where I’ll end up next. I’m sure I’ll get a call tomorrow. One day the phone may stop ringing, and I’m prepared for that and I’m transitioning, but every time I transition, they end up sucking me back in.”

This article was originally published on June 28, 2023

The world's foremost Tom Cruise impersonator tells us about those viral Tom Cruise deepfakes

A two-part collage of Tom Cruise and his Impersonator

With your sound off and limited familiarity of his golf swing, the Tom Cruise deepfakes taking TikTok by storm are convincing enough. There he is at the tee, stumbling in a hallway, and performing a magic trick — with the trademark scrunched-face laughter and off-center incisors, to match a suitably realistic haircut. Fire up the sound, and the voice isn’t quite there, but with a username like @deeptomcruise, it’s unlikely these were ever intended to mislead to such an extent. (Oh, but they have .)

The frighteningly uncanny facial impression of Cruise is a minor viral sensation, with one such video raking in more than 6 million views in three days. After seeing a few of these zip around the timeline, my first instinct was to call up another Tom Cruise impersonator, Evan Ferrante, who’s been featured on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon , It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia , and recently performed voice work for The Animaniacs .

To examine the trend and talk about the tough work of becoming the Mission Impossible actor, we spoke with the 41-year-old impersonator, who has the definitive take on the sprinting maniac. Operating as Not Tom Cruise , with a successful YouTube channel and Cameo profile (my first introduction to Ferrante, as an anniversary gift), he’s into his third decade of professionally donning the shaggy wig and black shades. Ferrante walked us through the nuances of celebrity impression deepfakes, the keys to a great Cruise impression, and an unlikely run-in with the man himself.

How long have you been working on your Tom Cruise impression?

I've been doing the Tom Cruise impersonation thing as a career since, roughly, 2004 or 2005 when YouTube and Funny or Die launched. I started putting up some videos. I was an actor prior to that, but I just didn't think the videos would lead to anything. One was just a montage of Tom Cruise's best performances, without a wig and glasses — it was really just about my acting, my impersonation. And it was in commemoration of him and Katie Holmes tying the knot, right after he jumped on the couch on Oprah . I thought it would be the opportune time in the zeitgeist to exploit that.

He’s just a very excitable, energetic character. I really need to be in the right headspace and have enough cups of coffee and stimuli to properly function as Tom Cruise.

Viral wasn't even a word back then, other than having a virus or bacterial infection. That did very well and then got the attention of my friend in high school — a director named Richie Keen ( Fist Fight , It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia ). And they had an idea for a series called “ Tom Cruise Is a Cockblock .” That video spawned a trilogy because it was so successful on Funny or Die , and reached immortal status within a week — which is a high mark for that site.

There are other lookalikes out there that do cosplay work — there’s a guy now, a terrific actor, who’s recently got some acclaim, because he’s using the very advanced deepfake software. He's an accomplished actor in his own right, but he tends to look like Tom Cruise a little bit more. He doesn't really have the voice down, but he's got the look. It really transforms him into an imperceptible kind of illusion of Tom Cruise.

The actor you alluded to is the same one going viral on TikTok right now?

Yeah, his name is Miles Fisher. He’s been on Mad Men , some other TV shows, Final Destination . He’s an actor I admire, and did a great Christian Bale a number of years ago.

I've also been using deepfakes, working with the best people in the industry doing it, from Collider TV and Corridor Digital to just individuals who work with software and are the go-to technicians out there. But this one is getting a lot of acclaim, because again, the technology just keeps getting better and better. People are drawn to illusion and people are drawn to lookalikes for some reason, because people like to be fooled or question things.

What, to you, are the most important elements to dial down for a Tom Cruise impersonation?

I would say the most important aspects are going from laughter to being really serious in an instant, also the pregnant pause Tom Cruise has, where he’s like [ switches to Cruise voice in Jerry Maguire] “Put me on the line with Bob Sugar” — of course, his big smile, his laugh, his woos. He’s just a very excitable, energetic character, so channeling that energy is something that I've had to work very hard in doing and I can't really do it sustainably for very long. It requires a great deal of energy. So I really need to be in the right headspace and have enough cups of coffee and stimuli to properly function as Tom Cruise.

From the looks of your website, you actually got to meet him at one point. How did that happen?

We met each other at the Chateau Marmont one evening, I think back in 2015, I think it was in November. We met at 2 in the morning in the lobby of the hotel. I tried to buy a bottle of champagne, prior to that, a few hours earlier in the garden, when we were both having dinner. I was having drinks with my friends and he was having dinner with a hodgepodge of celebrities — Jeremy Renner, people from The Office , Zero Dark Thirty — a big gathering of writers, directors, producers. I tried to buy a bottle of champagne, thinking it'd be a nice way to commemorate our meeting. And I was shot down immediately by the waiter, who said that I’d be banned for life, and he’d be fired, and it just wouldn’t happen. I was resigned to the fact that I’d just be breathing the same oxygen as him, two ships passing in the night. But my girlfriend at the time said there’s no way in hell we’re leaving tonight without meeting him.

As the night goes on, I'm a little bit drunk, I’m tipsy. I was very happy I was just in the same room with him. But everyone leaves the garden except for my friend and my friend gets a phone call. He gets a phone call from my girlfriend who went to the bathroom, since my phone was dead. And he says to me, Tom Cruise is waiting for you in the lobby. So I get out of my chair, knowing that he's telling the truth, and sprint from the garden shop to the lobby and Tom Cruise is waiting for me there. He does a slow turn, always in slow motion to me. And we embrace one another, and shake each other, and we say it’s an honor and privilege to meet you. We took a great picture together — he was wearing platforms, since he’s a little bit taller than me in the picture. Jeremy Renner was standing right behind him.

The deepfake works wonderfully when there’s an impersonator underneath who can bring the deepfake or the character to life underneath it.

You’ve described deepfakes as an enhancement to your impression, and it kind of edits out your original facial expressions. So are there some ways this works like autotune, where a layperson might not understand the nuances to mastering it?

There’s a spectrum with regard to the quality of deepfakes. And again, the deepfake works wonderfully when there’s an impersonator underneath who can bring the deepfake or the character to life underneath it. Anyone can wear a deepfake mask — you, myself, my mother — could wear a Tom Cruise mask. Doesn’t mean it will be any good, it just means the technology will map it onto whoever wears the mask.

Also, age has a lot to do with it, the way your body moves, your mannerisms. So, for instance, the movie The Irishman got a lot of criticism, because you had older actors wearing a young deepfake mask. There was a disconnect because you were watching an older actor move in the mask, and it didn’t really work. There was a disconnect when Robert De Niro was beating someone up as only a 70-something man would beat somebody up.

People are skeptical of deepfakes for political reasons, but also perhaps for taking away work for real-life impersonators. Do you worry it might remove the novelty for career impersonators?

It’s an interesting question because a lot of people don’t care. It’s a testament — look, Miles’s video is excellent — to how viral and popular something’s become simply because it meets the criteria of fooling someone based on technological prowess and style over substance. Now it's all about the substance, in my opinion, but these days substance means far less than it used to.

Is it crucial that you nail his facial quirks when you’re filming, or can they edit it in afterwards?

It’s really not. If I were to explore deepfake and make it pretty imperceptible or perfect, I could probably figure out what facial expressions I would absolutely need to make it stronger. The software is so good that it merges his facial expressions with mine. If I open my mouth up too much using the Impressions app, it doesn’t work as well and the lighting has to be great. But when I’m working with a professional team, using top-of-the-line software and 4K cameras, I don’t have to worry about it too much.

In Miles’s recent videos, are there any tics or body language that don’t square with Cruise that you’ve picked up over the years?

Honestly, I think we do similar things — and I’m not going to say anything bad about his impression. He does a very good impression, but the voice isn’t quite there and is a giveaway for me. He’s got the perfect Tom Cruise hair, and the energy and the pauses down and the laugh. Again, it’s not a Tom-petition, I always say when people talk to me about other impersonators.

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Tom Cruise ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ lookalike wants answers amid suspicious Instagram ban: ‘Absolutely upsetting’

Jerome leblanc made living impersonating cruise’s character from ‘top gun’ until account was deactivated twice.

Tom Cruise deepfake videos raise concerns about video manipulation technology

'We're heading in a really scary direction,' Kurt 'CyberGuy' Knutsson warns on 'Fox & Friends Weekend.'

Once a creative virtuoso who was studying architecture at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Jerome LeBlanc soon found his calling as the most sought-after Tom Cruise lookalike until his high-profile Instagram account was deactivated for allegedly violating its terms and conditions by "impersonating" someone he wasn’t.

Except that someone is a fictional character, Lt. Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, played by Cruise in " Top Gun ."

LeBlanc, 33, told Fox News Digital that he and his manager wife – whom he met one day on Hollywood Boulevard while impersonating the famed "Top Gun" hunk – have been stonewalled by Instagram and have lost out on a ton of business due to the platform eschewing the social media account, which had 30,000 followers at the time of its deactivation.

Instagram – which is owned by Meta, formerly known as Facebook – initially banned the San Diego-based LeBlanc in June 2021 before LeBlanc said he had to submit verification and proof of his uncanny looks in order to have his account reinstated.

'TOP GUN: MAVERICK' STAR LEWIS PULLMAN REVEALS HE 'PUKED SO MUCH' FILMING FLIGHT SCENES: NEVER 'ON CAMERA'

Jerome LeBlanc bares an uncanny resemblance to Tom Cruise's "Top Gun" character, Lt. Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell. (Courtesy Jerome LeBlanc)

"We got it back after proving and showing my ID with the way I look that I portray 'Maverick' and they said, 'sorry for our mistake' and they gave it back," LeBlanc explained of the process, which has become painstaking to remedy after he said the platform apologized for its initial mistake.

Per Instagram’s rules: "Creating an account to impersonate someone is against the Community Guidelines and could result in the removal of your account."

TOM CRUISE 'WAS REALLY ADAMANT' VAL KILMER APPEAR IN 'TOP GUN: MAVERICK'

It also warns users, "Don't pretend to be the real individual or brand. This includes: Speaking in the voice or portraying yourself as the individual, brand, or organization. Misrepresenting your relationship to the individual, brand, or organization."

LeBlanc’s native language is French and he says he adheres to all of Instagram’s rules and regulations.

"The second time we applied about six times a day for over two months and they never gave it back, even my saying, I am this person," he said. "I even recreated -- how interesting is it that I created two more accounts after it was deactivated under my name, Jerome LeBlanc -- impersonator of Maverick, and it got deleted right away. So I don't know how that is even possible as well?"

Jerome LeBlanc, right, the most sought-after Tom Cruise lookalike, had his high-profile Instagram account was deactivated by Instagram for allegedly violating its terms and conditions by "impersonating" someone he wasn’t. (Getty/Jerome LeBlanc)

Reps for Instagram and Meta did not respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment. Furthermore, a number of attorneys who are not associated with the inquiry declined to speak on the matter with some citing confusion over the ban and others saying they don’t know enough about the situation to confidently lend their insight.

LeBlanc shares two young children with his wife – a 3-month-old son and a daughter who is 2 and a half. He says the loss in income has been devastating "in these difficult times" and said that while his legal counsel is based in Louisiana, bringing a lawsuit against the social media corporation in California would all but deplete their savings – but the option remains on the table as the Instagram ban is "definitely a legal matter at this point."

TOM CRUISE'S WINGMAN IN 'TOP GUN,' ANTHONY EDWARDS, RECALLS WORKING WITH STAR: 'HE ONLY HAS ONE SWITCH'

"I mean, losing Instagram and over 30,000 followers, that was my platform where I was really just posting events and clips of events I would do here in San Diego," LeBlanc explained of his upended business. "I've performed on the USS Midway and Miramar base, Kansas City Barbecue. I'm sure you're familiar with all these locations due to the movie 'Top Gun' being filmed here."

"So I think I really had a big San Diego-based audience on my social media where people could see all this and book me from my platform," LeBlanc added. "And losing that, I can tell, affected my business tremendously because people were like, 'What happened with California Tom Cruise?' And people reached out to other groups or 'Top Gun' fans asking about me. So it definitely, I think, made me lose a lot of business for sure."

Jerome LeBlanc, left, impersonates Tom Cruise's "Top Gun" character, Lt. Pete "Maverick," Mitchell at an event. (Courtesy Jerome LeBlanc)

He continued: "I kind of put my architectural degree aside at UCLA and I went full speed into this craft and then we moved down to San Diego. And that's when I was like, wow, this can be a career," he said. "And then my wife, who met me as Maverick, realized it is a niche that we should really push further, so she became my manager and she's been my manager ever since, so both of us are pretty much hurt in the process."

LeBlanc said he even recreated a couple of Instagram accounts to see if they would pass the test but said those were also removed immediately, and now LeBlanc says no one from Instagram or Meta has gotten back to him regarding his numerous appeals.

'MISSION IMPOSSIBLE' SCRAPS PLANS TO FILM 7TH AND 8TH INSTALLMENTS BACK-TO-BACK DUE TO CORONAVIRUS: REPORT

He has since switched to TikTok, where he plays to more than half a million followers.

"Never in my career for 11 years, I've been doing this have I called myself Tom Cruise," he fumed while also pondering why other similar social media accounts have been able to carry on without banishment.

"Have I used the hashtag Tom Cruise? Yes, correct. But Maverick is a character. I'm not doing anything wrong by impersonating a fictional character," argued LeBlanc. "And so I would say the response of people finding out that I lost my Instagram, they were very insulted and upset about that for sure."

Jerome LeBlanc had his Instagram account deactivated for "impersonating" Tom Cruise. (Courtesy Jerome LeBlanc)

In fact, LeBlanc’s Maverick impersonation is so spot-on, he claimed to Fox News Digital that Paramount Studios had even reached out to him in the past to work with him – so in his theory of who or what might be standing in his way, LeBlanc has his own suspicions.

"In our situation, we reached out so many times and we had lawyers reaching out, calling, emailing, Facebook and Meta, and we just never heard back. So I would say there are so many other characters," he explained.

TOM CRUISE'S 'MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE' SEQUELS DELAYED YET AGAIN DUE TO COVID

"Is my character targeted because the movie's been postponed, and maybe I'm so good at what I'm doing that it makes people upset or I could go further and think, is it Paramount, is it Tom Cruise or is it the religion?" he questioned. "But Paramount has reached out to me to potentially work with me last year, so I doubt it really is the studio. But I think my character is so loved and brings so much attention on social media. I think that's why I probably got deleted – to not mislead where the real Tom Cruise could be or of scenes of the new 'Top Gun: Maverick' or something like that."

"It always crossed my mind, when will I meet him? And I know myself, as soon as I see him, I will take off the glasses and be who I am and just shake his hand." — Jerome LeBlanc, Tom Cruise lookalike, Lt. Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell impersonator

At the end of the day, LeBlanc just says he wants to get back to doing what he loves – bringing smiles to the faces of those who love and were inspired by Maverick in "Top Gun."

"When people need a celebrity – sometimes they're so fascinated by a certain movie they've done that they want to meet the character" he opined. "Well, that's what I'm able to bring to the table, and people just kind of freak out because the nostalgia of 'Top Gun' is so big from people that grew up with that movie in the '80s."

Jerome LeBlanc says he was "inspired" by Lt. Pete "Maverick" Mitchell in "Top Gun." (Courtesy Jerome LeBlanc)

The Canadian said he believes Instagram simply has too much control over its users and is often too vague in its reasoning behind certain retributions.

"Yes, absolutely. And you know, like any performer, the joy of doing what I do is entertainment. I'm entertaining guests and I feed on the energy of seeing them, just smiling and cracking up," LeBlanc exuded, the octave in his voice increasing with each moment of recollection. "And I'm super witty, so I take on people – if one lady isn't smiling, I'm going to say – 'Oh my God, it looks like we got to bring back that loving feeling.' So that's what is frustrating. It's like, wow, I was bringing a lot of love and a lot of effort in what I do to give people a good time like any performer, like any comedian even. So yeah, it is upsetting, absolutely with the amount of work that I had when Instagram was around, it's a challenge to keep going, but I keep my head up."

TOM CRUISE SPOTTED DANGLING FROM AIRPLANE WING WHILE FILMING 'MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 8'

LeBlanc also recalled a moment at San Diego Comic-Con one year when he was mere moments from meeting Cruise until the " Mission: Impossible " star elected not to greet fans.

Some studio personnel close to the actor quipped to LeBlanc that Cruise couldn’t stomach the idea that he could come face to face with his biggest supporter who happened to be "two feet taller" and whose first language is French.

Canadian Jerome LeBlanc has since switched to TikTok, where he plays to more than half a million followers as "Top Gun" hero Maverick. (Courtesy Jerome LeBlanc)

"My niche is very particular. I mean, I have people from aviation contacting me, people from the Navy. I mean, I do graduations constantly," said LeBlanc. "Even other Tom Cruise fans will tell me, ‘You're so humble' and it's just refreshing. It’s a nice compliment."

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Despite the Instagram ban, LeBlanc said he longs for the day he actually meets Cruise and said knows exactly how he will address the actor in the flesh.

"It always crossed my mind, when will I meet him? And I know myself, as soon as I see him, I will take off the glasses and be who I am and just shake his hand," LeBlanc envisioned. "I'm not here to be beside him or make it a ‘who laughs the loudest’ or ‘who has the better smile.’

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"It's almost like, ‘Hey, hats off. Thank you for all the acting you did because it gave me a good character to play with, and I really enjoyed your character, and we have a similar smile – so a similar charm, maybe?’ And that's what people like, and that's what they remember from 1986. And I'm lucky and blessed to have that."

Julius Young is an entertainment reporter for Fox News Digital.

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This TikTok Tom Cruise impersonator is using deepfake tech to impressive ends

The future is here, in the form of tom cruise.

By Mitchell Clark

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What’s better than an ultra-high-tech, Mission: Impossible -style mask ? The deepfake technology this TikToker is using to impersonate Tom Cruise, apparently ( via The Daily Beast ). The deeptomcruise account appears to feature someone who’s pretending to be the famous actor, and the impression isn’t just jaw-dropping because of how well the person replicates Cruise’s famous laugh.

How can you tell it’s not actually Tom Cruise using some sort of strange Twitter name? First, his voice is close, but it’s not quite there, especially since the lip-syncing is a tiny bit off at some points. You can hear what the real Cruise sounds like in this video (unless, of course, James Corden also deepfaked him in).

Second, while the tracking and lighting on the face are darn near immaculate — especially when the actor passes something in front of his face — there are still a couple of telling glitches, notably in the golf one where the sunglasses disappear and his mouth morphs for a frame or two.

Even with these minor blips, the effect is still spooky. I’m not going to yell from the rooftops that deepfakes will be ruinous to society, but the fact that someone is posing, almost believably, as a famous actor on TikTok (and gaining 236,000 followers in the process) shows that it’s still hard to track deepfakes. While the account pretty clearly indicates that it’s a fake by using “deep” in its name, the next one to pop up might not. TikTok didn’t immediately respond to an email from The Verge asking whether this type of account is allowed under its terms of service, but its TOS explicitly call out impersonations as forbidden:

You may not: [...] impersonate any person or entity, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent you or your affiliation with any person or entity, including giving the impression that any content you upload, post, transmit, distribute or otherwise make available emanates from the Services

That said, this account does seem to be a bit of relatively harmless fun. If you’re reading this, person who runs deeptomcruise (or the real Tom Cruise), please show us if this tech can keep up with your best Tom Cruise run, or if it can handle you dancing and lip-syncing to Bob Seger . Just whatever you do, leave Oprah, deepfaked or not, out of it .

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This Michigan man is the ‘Maverick’ of Tom Cruise impersonators

Updated: Jul. 12, 2022, 8:44 a.m. |
Published: Jul. 12, 2022, 8:17 a.m.

Edward Pevos | [email protected]

If you feel the need, the need for a Tom Cruise impersonator, then this guy is the wingman you’ve been looking for. He’s one of the top Tom Cruise impersonators in the country and he’s from Michigan.

He says he can’t go anywhere in his sunglasses and bomber jacket without people asking to take photos with him and we saw that first hand when we couldn’t even get 10 seconds into our video interview with him, which you can see above, without someone coming up to him.

Cruise, err, Rick Dossin is from Eastpointe in Metro Detroit. Impersonating the actor is his side hustle. In real life, Dossin has been a truck driver for the last 30 years and says he didn’t even realized he looked like Tom Cruise until one person after another kept asking to take pictures with him.

“It has to be a good 15 years ago, it was people coming up to me. I didn’t think I was looking like him,” Dossin told MLive. “It was at concerts or ball games and they would come down and say, ‘Can we get a picture with you? I think you look like Tom Cruise.’ It just kind of started like that for a few years.”

Dossin says he eventually met some other Tom Cruise lookalikes who encouraged him to create a business card and website.

“And then I got a call for my first gig and I did that. I was featured on Wendy Williams and I did MSU Midnight Madness. Then I just started getting calls even out of state like California, Denver, Louisiana. It just kind of went from there on its own.”

Dossin really does it up. He gets his hair cut based on how Cruise’s hair is depending on the look in his current film. He even has replicas of some of Cruise’s most famous outfits.

He looks like Tom Cruise, but this is actually Rick Dossin, a Tom Cruise impersonator from Metro Detroit. (Photo by Edward Pevos | MLive)

“I have most of the ‘Top Gun.’ I have the flight suit, the whites from the movie and of course, the bomber jacket. Then, I can just do casual Tom like from ‘Jerry Maguire’ or just average Tom, I guess. You would say Hollywood Tom.”

Dossin travels the country where he is booked for all kinds of events.

“Anywhere from corporate events. I’ve got one coming up, a private house party for the air show. It could be smaller like that or bigger events, some corporate event that has an 80s theme.”

Dossin says he doesn’t know of any other Tom Cruise impersonators in Michigan and he knows of only two others in the country.

“There’s two other ones in California that do it. I’m friends with them now. Along with me, that’s only three that I know of.”

Dossin says he’s never met the real Tom Cruise and doesn’t know if the actor knows he exists.

“I wish I could meet him. That would be the tops if I did. I assume he doesn’t know about me unless he’s bored looking online on his phone and came across me and said, ‘Hey, that guy looks like me’.”

Dossin says he doesn’t sign autographs as Tom Cruise and always reveals to people that he’s not who they may think he is, no matter how much they insist he must be.

“Some people are on fence and I’ll play around for laughs. I’ll say something like, ‘I can’t tell you. I’m filming a movie here.’ Eventually, though, I’ll tell them I’m not really him. And I never use this in the wrong way to get anything free. Although, I’ve been invited backstage at 80s concerts and I’ve been invited into suites at sporting events for pictures and things along those lines. Doing this definitely has its perks.”

If you want to book Dossin for an event, you can contact him via email here or at his Tom Cruise lookalike Facebook page .

Deepfake videos of Tom Cruise went viral. Their creator hopes they boost awareness.

The creator of a series of deepfake Tom Cruise videos that garnered more than 11 million views on TikTok said he never wanted to trick people.

But since he has, he's hoping the sudden influx of attention can help bring greater awareness to the continued evolution of the technology that can create incredibly realistic fake videos of people.

“The important thing is, we didn’t want to fool people at any moment,” Chris Ume, 31, the Belgian visual effects artist behind the viral deepfakes, said in an interview. “If I can help in creating awareness, or even work on detection in the future, I would love to.”

Ume created the four videos, in which it appeared to show the Hollywood star playing golf, doing a magic coin trick, and falling over while telling a story about the former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Three of them went viral, attracting attention on TikTok and across the internet.

And though most people realized quickly that the videos were fake, even experts were impressed by their quality.

Chris Ume used a combination of visual effects and editing software to make Miles Fisher look almost identical to Tom Cruise.

“My first thought was they’re incredibly well done,” said digital image forensics expert Hany Farid, who is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and specializes in image analysis and misinformation. “They’re funny, they’re clever.”

But they also offer a warning: Deepfake technology that has emerged in recent years continues to evolve and improve. And while deepfake videos have not yet been effectively used in many misinformation campaigns, the danger is growing.

“In the early days, you could see the potential, but it wasn’t even close to being there,” Farid said. “But this felt to me like it was a real step, like we just took a big step forward in the development of this technology.”

Cruise did not respond to a request for comment. Meanwhile his impersonator, Miles Fisher, replied to an NBC News email but said he did not wish to comment further.

Synthetic digital content, otherwise known as a deepfake, can include anything from an image or video in which one person or object is visually or audibly manipulated to say and do something that is fabricated. In the case of the @deeptomcruise TikTok account, Ume used a combination of visual effects and editing software to make Fisher look almost identical to the "Mission Impossible" actor.

Other manipulated videos have gained traction in recent years. A video produced by BuzzFeed warning the public about deepfake technology featured the actor Jordan Peele's realistic-looking impersonation of former President Barack Obama in 2018 that gained more than 8 million views on YouTube, and more recently other videos have emerged involving the former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg .

While analyzing the @deeptomcruise TikTok videos, Farid said he found it difficult to detect common discrepancies that have previously been spotted in other deepfakes — such as glitches around the face, particularly when it has been partially obscured by a moving hand.

He said he was able to identify inconsistencies particularly around the eyes, although “they were very minor.”

“This one was very polished," Farid added. "It was long and in high resolution."

Although Ume used sophisticated visual effects editing, advancements in digital editing through smartphone apps such as Reface, Facetune and even Snapchat have made techniques like face-swapping and image altering more accessible and could cause the possible weaponization of deepfakes, experts say.

However Matt Groh, a research assistant with the Affective Computing group at the MIT Media Lab, said there were “still a lot of constraints on what this can do.”

“Our imagination can quickly run wild, and just assume it's really good on all fronts — and maybe someday it can be,” he said. “When you have a bunch of different videos, rather than a single video, you start to see where some of these imperfections lie.”

To allay the fears of experts like Farid, Ume said he would like to see regulations brought in to allow responsible use of deepfake technology, and for social media networks to create labels for such content.

Detection software isn’t good enough right now, he said.

“That’s obvious because these three videos weren’t detected by the models," he said.

Since his videos went viral on TikTok, Ume has released a visual effects breakdown of how he created them, in an attempt to help educate people on how they’re made and how difficult they can be to produce.

“It’s not something you can do at home,” said Ume, who is part of a team of deepfake artists at Deep Voodoo — a visual effects studio assembled by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of the show “South Park.”

The TikTok videos were so convincing, Ume said, because of his expertise, as well as the ability to work with someone like Fisher who could impersonate Cruise so well.

TikTok updated its policy, after releasing a statement in August 2020 , that prohibits synthetic or manipulated content which "misleads users by distorting the truth of events and cause harm to the subject of the video, other persons, or society."

However, TikTok did not take any action against @deeptomcruise or the videos it posted because it did not go against its community guidelines. The social media platform declined to comment.

While the deepfake Cruise videos are entertaining and were “never really meant to be deceptive,” Farid said, there are “legitimate concerns” about how this could inspire others to create similar fabricated content.

“Think about the implications for national security,” Farid said. “Think about the implications if I create a video of Jeff Bezos saying that Amazon stock profits are down 20 percent — how much can I move the markets? How many billions of dollars before anybody figures out that it's fake?”

Bianca Britton is a reporter for NBC News' Social Newsgathering team based in London.

Man Who’s The ‘Face’ Behind Tom Cruise Deepfakes Talks About How Huge Of A Burden It’s Been--Even Around A-Listers Like Leonardo DiCaprio

The deepfake Tom Cruise actor opens up about the burden of emulating the Hollywood icon.

Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible - Fallout

Tom Cruise has been thriving, as Top Gun: Maverick is still breaking records for Paramount . And while the star finds success, Miles Fisher, who's become famous for his Cruise deepfakes is getting considerable buzz a well. Of course, going viral for his uncanny recreations of the actor has helped raise his profile. But as Fisher now tells it, fooling people into thinking he’s Cruise has proved to be a burden, even around A-listers like Leonardo DiCaprio.

Miles Fisher definitely seems appreciative of the attention and work he's received, thanks to his resemblance to the Mission: Impossible star . However, whenever he's working with Hollywood titans, there's something that he just can't seem to shake. As Fisher explained:

Nevertheless, I enjoyed a decent run acting opposite some extraordinary people. I got to work with Leonardo DiCaprio, Clint Eastwood, and Angelina Jolie. I improvised with Vince Vaughn, Laurence Fishburne, and Keegan-Michael Key. I played serious with Elisabeth Moss, Courtney Vance, and Owen Wilson. You know what they all had in common? Every one of them thought it was crazy how much I looked like Tom Cruise. I had pursued acting to prove that I wasn’t just the Tom Cruise guy. I failed.

Working alongside the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio , Angelina Jolie , and Laurence Fishburne seems to have been mostly enjoyable for him. However, it seems that what's become burdensome for Miles Fisher is that they can't see past the Tom Cruise resemblance. Celebrity can definitely be a tool that can bring people opportunities in a positive way. Though Fisher opened up more in his THR op-ed, saying that the constant comparisons have put him in a very interesting state as a person:

The vast majority of people who notice my resemblance to Tom Cruise feel good for having made the connection (ha) and give little consideration to what a strange burden and liability it’s been for me both personally and professionally. For my entire adult life, I’ve lived in a quasi-Groundhog Day state, with people stopping me daily to compare me to the most famous actor alive. I’m constantly reminded that to everyone else, I’m that guy. And it always comes off feeling like a punch in a face.

The star's Groundhog Day comparison really puts his situation into perspective, and it definitely sounds tiring. I can say that if I were constantly compared to another person based on my looks I'd probably feel the same way that he does. It's worth noting that the viral performer even showed a willingness to take down the viral videos , as to not offend the real actor. He also may have made that considering due to the security concerns that analysts had due to the seamless nature of the clips.

Before he went viral for his Tom Cruise TikTok videos, Mike Fisher gained early internet success through his music video spoofs on YouTube. Oftentimes, he would parody Hollywood production, including TV shows and movies, with the Maverick actor being a huge hit for Fisher even then. He broke down how impersonating the Hollywood icon so well early on affected his burgeoning acting career:

I spoofed American Psycho and Saved By the Bell. I spoofed Hollywood agencies and, of course, Tom Cruise. I loved seeing that view count cross the million mark. I felt it was proof of concept that there was an audience who enjoyed watching me. But was it really me they were watching? The Tom Cruise resemblance was becoming a real hindrance professionally. It seemed that no matter how well I spoofed others, I was simply too good at spoofing him. Once you saw me do that, you couldn’t unsee him, and there was little I could do to shake it off. Believe me, I tried.

Shaking his Tom Cruise lookalike status has certainly been hard for him. Clearly, he wants to be seen as Mike Fisher the actor and not the “Deepfake Cruise” guy. It can be difficult for stars to escape such labels, and one can only hope that Fisher can break out of it.

Still, leaning into those deepfakes has worked for Mike Fisher as he’s teamed up with celebrities like Keegan-Michael Key and Paris Hilton for major viral moments. But viral success doesn’t equate to happiness as some might say. Hopefully, his strong will translate into a Hollywood career, one that isn't defined by his resemblance to the star.

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If you want to see the actual Tom Cruise in action, check out Top Gun : Maverick , which is currently in theaters. You can check out the 2022 movie schedule to see what other movies the Top Gun star will be in next.

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For Metro Detroit Tom Cruise lookalike, life is no Mission: Impossible

Rick dossin of eastpointe is in cruise control as his hollywood counterpart is back in a very big way..

With last year's massive success of "Top Gun: Maverick" and the latest "Mission: Impossible" film now in theaters, Tom Cruise is firmly back in Hollywood's driver's seat, and Rick Dossin couldn't be happier.

"Good for him," says the 55-year-old Eastpointer. "And good for me!"

It's obvious why it's good for Cruise. But Dossin is excited because he happens to look just like the megastar, a resemblance the Macomb County native has parlayed into a semi-professional side gig as a Cruise lookalike.

His travels as Maverick have taken him across the country, where he occasionally appears at '80s parties, corporate events and even the odd high school reunion. Locally you might catch him at a summer fair or a festival, where his tassel of brown hair and those familiar black shades have caused many a double take, and he's happy to smile for the camera, take a picture and even throw out a Cruise catchphrase ("Talk to me, Goose") or two.

It wasn't always Tom Cruise for whom Dossin was mistaken.

"I used to get a lot of Christopher Reeve or, 'Hey, Superman!'" says Dossin. "I still get it once in a while, but it was never photos or anything like that."

Now he leans into it, often sporting a clean black V-neck T-shirt and sportcoat, his black wraparound shades (usually a $10 pair from a gas station) always within reach. His haircut isn't as untamed as Cruise's current locks, but is a little more controlled.

At 5-foot-11-inches, he's about 4 inches taller than Cruise, but who's counting? Either way, he looks the part — and he's having fun with it.

By day and by night

By day, you might catch Cruise, er, Dossin working his day job as a truck driver, transporting janitorial supplies to various buildings in downtown Detroit and the greater Metro Detroit area. At night, he loves going to concerts, especially '80s-era artists, where his signature look sometimes grants him special and even backstage access.

He's met Sammy Hagar and the dudes from Night Ranger, and Terri Nunn, whose biggest hit with Berlin is the "Top Gun" love theme "Take My Breath Away," once greeted him with a full open-arms hug. He's pals with some of the guys in local '80s tribute bands — lookalikes of a feather flock together — and he made sure not to miss Bret Michaels' Parti Gras concert Thursday night at Pine Knob, where he scored a picture with the Poison frontman.

"He's a super straight shooter, and he’s really easy to get along with," says Craig Janos of Warren, a friend and a local Jack Nicholson impersonator who has known Dossin for several years. For awhile, they tried putting together a dual act based on "A Few Good Men," but it never took off the way they wanted it to.

But they have managed to cause a stir together, like the time they paired up at a Pistons-Lakers game in December 2015 — it was Kobe Bryant's final visit to the Palace of Auburn Hills — and they were mobbed by so many fans looking for selfies that they needed help from security to exit the arena.

That time got a little scary, Janos says, but for the most part people are kind and respectful.

"It doesn't take long for someone to come up to him and ask for a picture," he says.

A few years ago, Dossin was a part of Michigan State Madness, the annual kickoff to the Spartans' basketball season, where he was driven onto the court in a black SUV and appeared alongside Tom Izzo and the rest of the MSU men's basketball team. He never broke character, and he kept it Cruise the entire time.

Last year, following "Maverick's" incredible box office success, Dossin appeared in an in-theater advertisement for Emagine Theaters, alongside Emagine's Paul Glantz and Fox 2 anchor and WNIC-FM (100.3) morning man Jay Towers.

"If you live here, everybody has seen that guy, everybody knows that guy in some way," says Towers, who has been running into Dossin at events and Halloween parties for years. "Rick shows up and he looks like Tom Cruise. 'It's the Tom Cruise guy!' But what's funnier is he's doing Tom Cruise from 1986, not Tom Cruise today. He's become a really funny conversation piece."

Dossin knows that and he uses it to his advantage, Towers says. "He's in on the joke, he gets it," he says.

A decade of being Maverick

Dossin grew up in Eastpointe, the second youngest of six, and graduated from South Lake High School in St. Clair Shores. He's never smoked or drank — sitting down at a bar for an interview following a screening of the latest "Mission: Impossible" movie, he orders a cranberry juice — and he's never been married.

"I never woke up going, 'I gotta get married and have kids!'" he says. "And I'm kind of glad I didn't."

Having no ties at home makes it easier for him to pick up and go to Texas or Colorado or California, wherever he might get booked for an appearance, he says. Those appearances of course slowed down during the COVID-19 pandemic, but things are back up and running now, he says.

Dossin dabbled in modeling and acting in his early years; he once appeared in a Lover's Lane ad, not as Tom Cruise, and he played a cop in Billy Crystal's baseball movie "61*," which was filmed locally in summer 2000.

Dossin began taking the Tom Cruise business seriously after he appeared on "The Wendy Williams Show" in 2012 , during a segment about celebrity lookalikes. After that he went from smiling and nodding when people pointed out his uncanny Cruiseness to making appearances and turning his looks into a business.

In that business, "Top Gun" is his bread and butter, and he's got a flight suit, aviator shades and the Navy whites to complete the look. In his travels he's met several other Tom Cruise lookalikes, and he even crashed with another Cruise during a trip to California a few years ago.

He struggled early on to figure out what to charge; he didn't want to ask too much and price himself out of a job, he says. He now charges $150 an hour for appearances, and he'll even throw in a "show me the money!" for good measure.

While the real Tom Cruise has had his public ups and downs, Dossin — who admits he's "not a huge movie guy" — has always been a fan, dating back to Cruise's "Risky Business" days.

"Like when he jumped up on the couch? I don't really see what was so bad about that," says Dossin of Cruise's infamous 2005 "Oprah" appearance where he declared his love for Katie Holmes by leaping onto the talk show host's furniture. "You see other people doing way worse things."

Dossin has never had the opportunity to meet Cruise, but he holds out hope that one day he'll get the chance.

"Oh, that would be the tops," he says, flashing that winning Tom Cruise smile.

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Ladies... what Tom Cruise movie gets your heart rate up the most? Is it that button-down shirt and socks combo in Risky Business? Or is it the romantic sports agent in Jerry McGuire? Let’s face it... he’s pretty dreamy in whatever movie he stars in. And fellas... don’t act like you’ve never looked in the mirror and pretended to be like Maverick in Top Gun. Whether you like him for his good looks or for his great acting chops and beastly-ness, you should consider hiring one of these talented Tom Cruise impersonators or look-alikes to wow the crowd at your next event. He’ll have them at hello.

Good ol’ Tom Cruise! He might have gone off the deep end a bit with the whole jumping-on-the-couch tirade on Oprah and whatnot, but he’s still a mega star with mega good looks and charm. His variety of roles have shown him to be a true star that can turn any film into an instant hit just by being in it. Now your upcoming party or special event can be an instant hit, too, with one of these great Tom Cruise impersonators or look-alikes. These impersonators can wow your crowd with lines and costumes from Top Gun, Mission:Impossible, Risky Business, and all of your other favorite Cruise movies. They might even be able to bring along a Katie Holmes impersonator by their side to complete the superstar Tom-Kat couple. But if you’d prefer him to just be his handsome self, they have also mastered Tommy’s real life characteristics, style, and swagger. A Tom Cruise impersonator can be a great choice for events of all types. He can act as emcee at your corporate event or award ceremony, or he can mix and mingle at your birthday party, bachelorette party, trade show, or other special event. He will talk with the guests, pose for pictures, and sign autographs. Browse through the Tom Cruise impersonators here on GigSalad. You can watch videos, check out photo galleries, and read reviews to ensure you book exactly what you want for your upcoming special event.

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Tom Cruise’s new look has left fans questioning if it is actually him

Tom Cruise ’s recent appearance at a baseball game in the United States has sparked conversation as people have been taken aback by the Hollywood icon’s new look.

The 59-year-old Mission: Impossible star was spotted in the stands at Saturday’s game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants and seemed to be in good spirits amongst the fans at Oracle Park and was posing for pictures, including one with fellow movie star Danny Glover .

.@TomCruise is in the house for tonight’s game https://t.co/9W9osKe5FX — SF Giants on NBCS (@SF Giants on NBCS) 1633833323

However, many thought Cruise looked a little different, leading some to speculate that he’d either had plastic surgery done or that it was a lookalike that somehow fooled everyone.

Gonna spend the rest of tonight and all of tomorrow wondering if some random dude convinced the Giants he was Tom Cruise. — Molly Knight (@Molly Knight) 1633833571

Alright it’s Tom Cruise. He’s talking to Danny Glover, unless he has Glover fooled as well. https://t.co/wmZvxALuab — Molly Knight (@Molly Knight) 1633833826

Am I the only one who thinks this isn’t Tom Cruise but just some random dude who looks kind of like him? https://t.co/xhxI7ANCB6 — Elex Michaelson (@Elex Michaelson) 1633834458

Tom Cruise becomes latest Hollywood star to ruin his face with fillers in an attempt to look “youthful”. https://t.co/uHNkeAWtmq — Mike Sington (@Mike Sington) 1633945839

However, a few people defended the actor and accused some of body shaming the star with their comments.

listen i don’t like tom cruise at all (AT ALL), but i’m seriously sick of twitter trashing people for their weight… https://t.co/8qzgT2AYWK — little ragoo (@little ragoo) 1633958095

People are so nasty about Tom Cruise’s appearance. People are allowed to age and gain weight or take medications li… https://t.co/gQvQGhU8xR — Lana #BLM (@Lana #BLM) 1633884946

Ok back the hell up people! He doesn’t look like he’s had fillers, he looks like he’s gained weight! Could be for a… https://t.co/6pz8rOAbPl — According2Taz (@According2Taz) 1633925423

This isn’t the first time that Cruise’s features have prompted discussion this year. People were equally confused after Cruise was pictured outside a curry house in Birmingham , England in August, where he was filming scenes for Mission: Impossible 7 .

It was an absolute pleasure to welcome Tom Cruise to Asha's Birmingham yesterday evening 🌟 Tom ordered our famous… https://t.co/nGf0OIPztN — Asha's (@Asha's) 1629627474

Cruise has been firmly in the headlines this year as his filming schedule for Mission: Impossible 7 and the eighth film in the franchise has taken him all over the globe, including landing a helicopter in someone’s back garden in Warwickshire. He’s also been spotted a host of sporting events including Wimbledon, the Euro 2020 final and the British Grand Prix.

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Mission Impossible: Professional Tom Cruise impersonator is kicked off Instagram because PRETENDNG to be someone else violates sites rules

Jerome LeBlanc, 33, built up his Tom Cruise lookalike business over 10 years
He had 30,000 followers on Instagram which would drive his business that consisted of video messages and in-person meet & greets
Social media platform kicked him off twice for 'impersonation' and breaching the app's Community Guidelines
Instagram ignored his appeal devastating his business during the pandemic
LeBlanc has switched to TikTok where he has more than half a million followers

By James Gordon For Dailymail.com

Published: 20:59 EDT, 14 January 2022 | Updated: 02:21 EDT, 15 January 2022

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A Tom Cruise lookalike has been kicked off Instagram for 'pretending to be someone,' which has destroyed his business.

Jerome LeBlanc, 33, from Quebec, Canada , who resides in San Diego, California , was removed from the social media platform for breaking one of the apps 'community guidelines' which forbid people from impersonating others.

LeBlanc, who blessed with good looks and appears uncannily like the real Tom Cruise, had been able to find work impersonating the Top Gun actor and built up his Instagram following over the course of six years.

Having built up more than 30,000 followers, his sudden removal from Instagram led to a sharp drop in business.

'It was a pretty big blow for someone self employed like me to lose an account that brought me so much business,' LeBlanc told DailyMail.com.

LeBlanc was first banned from the platform in June 2021. He appealed and was reinstated before being stuck off for good weeks later.

Jerome LeBlanc, 33, built up his Tom Cruise lookalike business over 10 years but has now been kicked off Instagram

Instagram kicked LeBlanc off twice for 'impersonation' and breaching the app's Community Guidelines. He is pictured during a meet and greet with fans in 2020

LeBlanc, left, impersonates the real Tom Cruise and his character Maverick, right, from the 1986 film Top Gun

Professional Tom Cruise impersonator Jerome LeBlanc is seen on his Facebook page, left, while the real deal Tom Cruise is seen, right

Instagram rules state: 'Creating an account to impersonate someone is against the Community Guidelines and could result in the removal of your account.'

The app further advises: 'Don't pretend to be the real individual or brand. This includes: Speaking in the voice or portraying yourself as the individual, brand, or organization. Misrepresenting your relationship to the individual, brand, or organization.'

LeBlanc tells DailyMail.com: 'I tried appealing the disabling of my account - explaining I'm impersonating a fictional character, but no luck. They stated "I was pretending to be someone, and my name did not match the account." Of course I wasn't pretending to be anyone, I was impersonating a fictional character.'

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LeBlanc set about providing Instagram documents that would hopefully see the company, which is owned by Meta (formerly Facebook), reconsider.

He supplied them with information including a business license showing that owned a lookalike business, but the decision was a firm 'no'.

'I began to appeal three times a day for weeks. Finally, I received a different response, they said I needed either a lawyer or someone on my behalf to prove my legitimacy. So I retained a lawyer,' he continued.

'After thousands of dollars lost during the process, and thousands spent on a lawyer trying to regain my account. They never even responded to my lawyer,' LeBlanc explained.

LeBlanc often makes in-person appearances at military-themed events

LeBlanc has now been forced to switch to TikTok to generate business. He is pictured in 2021

LeBlanc says he does not believe the real Tom Cruise, pictured above, is responsible for him being removed from Instagram while others have suggested that he may well be

'It has affected my business greatly due to the fact my Instagram was mainly a San Diego base following. Which is where I live. Also, to top it off... This is all happening during a pandemic where we need to maintain a physical distance.'

Before heading online, LeBlanc began impersonating Cruise's character Maverick from Top Gun on Hollywood Blvd in Los Angeles at the age of 23, where he would pose with tourists.

In recent times, when not making in-person appearances at parties or larger events such as the San Diego Comic Con for a fee of thousands, LeBlanc would generate income by making personal videos for those who requested them for around $80 a pop.

Despite speaking French as a first language, LeBlanc trained himself to perfect the quintessential Tom Cruise laugh, a trademark of the Syracuse-born superstar.

Now married with two children, his impersonation role is his full-time job.

Since being kicked off Instagram, LeBlanc has been forced to start all over again and has now switched to TikTok and Cameo.

LeBlanc began impersonating Cruise's character Maverick from Top Gun, on Hollywood Blvd pictured above, in Los Angeles at the age of 23, where he would pose with tourists

LeBlanc, pictured, says he does not believe the real actor is behind his suspension but has had word that Cruise may well have had some influence behind the scenes

If you can't meet Tom Cruise, you can at least pose with the next best thing - meet Jerome LeBlanc!

LeBlanc is seen in a typical Tom Cruise pose with hair, glasses and flight jacket all in the character of Maverick from Top Gun

Even real life members of the U.S. Air Force are happy to pose with the Tom Cruise impersonator

On TikTok, he has quickly managed to build up a loyal fanbase of more than 530,000 followers. Nevertheless, he is still disappointed in how he was treated by Instagram.

'My career was mainly 'meet and greets' and appearances, and because of this platform I survived the entire pandemic creating videos for people and never receiving unemployment,' he said.

'I'm extremely disappointed that a platform so huge wouldn't have a customer service system with real people responding.'

LeBlanc says he does not believe the real actor is behind his suspension but has had word that Cruise may well have had some influence behind the scenes.

'In November, I tried appealing once again but the email address simply bounced, s o I have been definitely banned from the appealing process at this point.'

Despite a frustrating six months, LeBlanc remains humble: ' I'm very grateful for a career that is not only fun for me, but fun for others. The exchange of energy this job brings is absolutely fantastic.'

Professional Tom Cruise impersonator Jerome LeBlanc is seen on his Facebook page

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Suri Cruise’s Timothée Chalamet Look-alike Boyfriend Has One Important Thing in Common With Her and It’ll Make Dad Tom Cruise Very Proud

Could Suri Cruise's High School Sweetheart Win Her Father Tom Cruise's Approval?

Suri Cruise, Timothée Chalamet, Tom Cruise

Suri Cruise, daughter of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, has been estranged from her father for most of her life after her parents' infamous split.
Suri's boyfriend, Toby Cohen, appears to have a penchant for music, much like the 18-year-old graduate.
The two lovebirds were recently spotted cozying up on a Central Park date after Cohen took Suri to prom.

Tom Cruise may not be the paragon of fatherhood for Suri Cruise, but if the two hadn’t been distant, the Top Gun: Maverick star would probably approve of his daughter’s romantic choices.

Tom Cruise as Pete Mitchell in Top Gun 2

Katie Holmes and Cruise’s daughter, Suri, has heart eyes for someone who has uncannily similar features as Timothée Chalamet. But the pair might just make the perfect couple, especially because of this shared interest.

Suri Cruise’s Mystery Man Could Probably Win Over Tom Cruise

Imagine dating Tom Cruise ‘s daughter and having to win the approval of a Hollywood action legend like him. A Herculean feat, to say the least. But perhaps that wouldn’t be the case for Suri Cruise ‘s sweetheart had the father-daughter been in touch.

Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible—Fallout

The 18-year-old was recently spotted with beau Toby Cohen as he escorted her to prom. Cohen – a Timothée Chalamet look-alike – happens to be a fellow senior at the same LaGuardia High School of Music & Arts and Performing Arts that Suri recently graduated from (via Style ). The lovebirds came to the internet’s attention after a video of them kissing and hugging on a Central Park date went viral on Instagram.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Suri Noelle Cruise Holmes 🔵 (@suricruise_sc)

Interestingly enough, Cohen seems to harbor musical talents and even posted covers of Whitney Houston’s ‘I Wanna Dance with Somebody’ and Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Thunder Road’ on social media platforms like YouTube and TikTok. What’s more, he is reportedly preparing to pursue his musical interests in Boston at the Berklee College of Music (via Style ).

Not Even a Massive Milestone Event in Daughter Suri Cruise’s Life Could Pull Tom Cruise Away From Mission: Impossible 8 Filming

Meanwhile, Suri herself appears to have a penchant for music considering how she even recorded the cover for ‘Blue Moon,’ a song which featured in her mother Katie Holmes ‘ film, Alone Together. While she may not be considering a future in the music industry, Suri and Cohen’s shared interests and blooming talent would make even her estranged father proud. Hopefully.

What Does Suri Cruise’s Future Look Like?

While it is unclear whether Suri plans on following her parents’ footsteps into Hollywood or wishes to explore her musical talents, she may be heading to Pittsburgh to attend Carnegie Mellon University (via People ).

The Dawson Creek alum’s daughter went by Suri Noelle instead of Suri Cruise at her high school graduation ceremony, which her 61-year-old father seems to have missed (via Page Six ). Although the reason behind Cruise’s absence remains unclear, the industry hotshot has had a complicated relationship with Suri, rendering them alienated for most of her life.

Katie Holmes and her daughter Suri Cruise

As for her boyfriend, she may have to go long-distance with Cohen if reports about her heading to Pittsburgh hold any veracity. Cohen has reportedly either renamed or removed his social media accounts after falling into the public eye and neither he nor Suri have addressed any rumors yet.

Katie Holmes suri cruise Tom Cruise

Written by Khushi Shah

With a prolific knowledge of everything pop culture and a strong penchant for writing, Khushi has penned over 700 articles during her time as an author at FandomWire. An abnormal psychology student and an fervent reader of dark fiction, her most trusted soldiers are coffee and a good book.

Nicole Kidman and her look-alike daughter Sunday Rose make grand entrance at Paris Haute Couture Week

Nicole Kidman and her 15-year-old daughter Sunday Rose made a grand entrance during Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week. The mother-daughter duo was photographed arriving at the highly anticipated Balenciaga runway show.

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The brand presented its 53rd Couture Collection during the fall/winter 2024-2025 show, with many celebrities and A-List stars attending the event, including Nicole, who was accompanied by her longtime friend Naomi Watts . The two stars were joined by their daughters and the group sat front row, posing for some photos.

Nicole and Sunday Rose wore all-black ensembles, looking glamorous entering the building. The actress wore a black floor-length dress paired with matching black heels and dark sunglasses. Meanwhile, her daughter wore a black minidress, black stockings, matching heels, and dark sunglasses just like her mom.

The family is known for staying away from the public eye. However, this time the pair decided to showcase their looks during Paris Haute Couture Week. Nicole shares two kids with singer Keith Urban, 13-year-old Faith Margaret , and Sunday Rose.

Naomi Watts and her daughter Kai Schreibern also attended the show, posing next to one another and enjoying a fun moment. Despite attending red carpets and exclusive fashion events, Nicole has previously revealed that they enjoy their everyday life at their Tennesse property.

"I like being a part of something not about my work, not about who I am, none of that. Just a citizen who's in the world. And my kids love that, too, when I do that," she said to Elle USA about their family dynamic.

She also credited Sunday for the revival of season 3 of HBO's 'Big Little Lies.' "My daughter is the one who watched both of the series and went, 'Okay, there's just no question, there has to be a third,'" she said to the publication.

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