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The Real-Life Inspiration Behind Tom Cruise's Character In Magnolia

Tom Cruise has quite an impressive body of work and while it's difficult for some to pick a career-best performance from the actor, I would choose one without hesitation: Frank T.J. Mackey in "Magnolia." Paul Thomas Anderson's magnum opus released in 1999 and follows a tapestry of interwoven characters as they struggle through their lives in the San Fernando Valley. At over three hours long, the film certainly isn't for everyone, but I think it's a masterpiece . Parts of it were written around the incredible music of Aimee Mann, who soundtracked much of the film, along with composer extraordinaire Jon Brion.

In "Magnolia," Cruise plays a motivational speaker of sorts, Frank T.J. Mackey, whose main objective is "Seduce and Destroy." Mackey is an unrepentant misogynist preaching his seduction skills to a room full of men all too eager to listen. He's a charismatic jerk teaching seminars on how to get laid, mainly through subterfuge, all while treating women as objects to be conquered. In other words, this is not an easy guy to root for. The most fascinating thing about the actor's performance isn't how good he is at inhabiting the role, but rather the humanity he brings to a character who, at first glance, seems to have none. Mackey is unlike any character Cruise has played before or since.

According to Grantland , the role was actually written for Cruise, who became a fan of Anderson after watching "Boogie Nights." While he might seem like he sprang directly from the director's imagination, this seemingly over-the-top character was actually inspired by a real person. So, who served as the spark for Frank T.J. Mackey?

Art imitates life

On the WTF with Marc Maron Podcast (via Uproxx ) Paul Thomas Anderson revealed that the inspiration behind Frank T.J. Mackey was real-life pickup artist, Ross Jeffries. I can't possibly do justice to all the details contained therein, but you can (but probably shouldn't) visit Jeffries' website at seduction.com . The site has a description of him that reads:

"Ross Jeffries™ is the founder, creator and Master Teacher of the worldwide seduction community. Featured as the mentor to Neil Strauss in the best-selling book, "The Game", RJ has taught, coached, and mentored thousands of men around the world, since 1991, guiding them to the success with women they truly desire and deserve."

One of his recent blog posts is called "Are You The Money Man Or The Honey Man?" and explains how you can be "The Vaginal Victor On V-Day!" Jeffries uses a system he's aptly titled Speed Seduction and his website has quite an extensive sales pitch for his online program, which includes a (what's the opposite of the phrase "treasure trove"?) plethora of lines like "How to use 'weasel phrases' to open her mind for instant and total sexual acceptance!" I have yet to look into what a weasel phrase is.

Despite this still seemingly active website, a man identifying himself as Paul Ross told Uproxx in 2015, "Ross Jeffries doesn't exist." He continued:

"Ross Jeffries was a character I created, a loudmouth, obnoxious, larger than life, sort of a bit of a showman to get the message out there, to be a loud mouthpiece. That character doesn't really meld with who I am today."

In regard to the movie, he stated:

"Here's the interesting thing: Paul Thomas Anderson thought that they were going to portray a real person. They didn't realize they were portraying a character created by an actor. Tom Cruise didn't realize that he was studying a character. He thought he was studying a person. He created a character based on a character."

As for Tom Cruise's performance:

"Mackey is more manic. Mackey is far more misogynistic. He's basically taking stuff from where I was in 1998. He's also much shorter than I am. Remember when Mackey had the audience take out their calendars? I didn't actually give them physical calendars, but I did have them say 'By the 5th of May I'll be having my way. By the 8th of June I'll have their poon.' That kind of rhyming stuff I got from Muhammed Ali."

He has indeed expanded his work into other areas, releasing a sales training book under the name Paul Ross. Ross, now a practicing Buddhist, says he still uses the name Ross Jeffries because it's "a brand," but that the work no longer reflects who he is.

According to Grantland, Jeffries is a former paralegal and brought a trademark attorney to see "Magnolia." Though he protested that Anderson "lifted some stuff almost word for word," Jeffries chose not to attempt a lawsuit because he liked the movie.

An actor playing an actor playing a role

As Mackey gives his ridiculous stage performance to an audience of men listening with rapt attention, it's impossible for the viewer to take their eyes off him, even as they are disgusted by what he is saying. Cruise is positively magnetic in the role, especially as his layers begin to fall away during his filmed interview with Gwenovier (April Grace). In a span of minutes, Frank goes from flexing in his tighty-whities to staring at Gwenovier like a caged animal: angry, frightened, and trapped. We don't immediately know why Frank is lying about his family trauma, but we do know he is no longer in control — though, perhaps he never was. It is Cruise's nuanced performance during this interview that allows his later breakdown to truly resonate.

Paul Ross considers Ross Jeffries a role he played that he's largely outgrown and feels as though Cruise didn't understand that he was a character playing a character. However, I would argue that's exactly how Cruise portrayed Frank Mackey, as someone hiding under a facade — albeit a convincing one. His final lecture sees him unravel, though his audience seems none the wiser. However, it's the reunion with his long estranged father (Jason Robards) that causes Frank to truly fall apart. Frank's emotional collapse at his father's deathbed is one of the film's most poignant moments. According to Grantland, Cruise was largely drawing on the experience of losing his own father. Much like Mackey, Cruise didn't get to spend much time with his dad. This storyline also proved cathartic for Anderson, who'd lost his father as well.

In what begins with a single take, viewers watch Mackey's face run the gamut of human emotion. He hates his father for leaving them and forcing him to take care of his dying mother as a teenager, but at the same time he's already mourning the life they never had together now that it's gone forever. The scene actually played out a bit differently in the script, with Frank immediately breaking down upon arrival, but Cruise thought it didn't feel quite right and made some changes. At this point, fans are more used to seeing Cruise perform increasingly wild stunts for his action movies. However, for me, there was no greater stunt than the one he pulled in making me cry right along with someone as evidently awful as Frank Mackey. Which I do. Every single time.

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Tom Cruise’s ‘Magnolia’ Performance Will Never Not Make Me Cry

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These days, we’re much more likely to see Tom Cruise jumping out of a plane than we are jumping into an under-the-radar, daring drama. And that’s just fine! The  Mission: Impossible  movies only seem to get better with each new installment (I’m legitimately counting down the days till Fallout ), and Cruise is the biggest movie star in the world for a reason – he’s damn good at it. He’s an All-American hero (well, if you don’t think about all that  Scientology stuff ), a guy we can all get behind. We want to see him beat the bad guys and flash that winning smile, because he’s Tom Cruise, goddamnit, and that’s what he was born to do. Before his résumé was mostly action fare and sequels, however, Cruise appeared in a wide variety of films, from  Born on the Fourth of July  and  A Few Good Men  to  Jerry Maguire  and  Eyes Wide Shut . All these films (and many more) have established him as one of our most versatile working actors (though we’re wont to forget this nowadays), but there’s one Tom Cruise movie I’ll never be able to shake:  Magnolia . On his 56th birthday, we’re looking back at his most devastating role.

Putting the fact that  Magnolia  is one of my favorite films of all time aside, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better Tom Cruise performance anywhere else. It may seem like an impossible mission to pick a “best” Cruise performance, and this isn’t discounting the incredible work he’s done elsewhere. But Frank “T.J.” Mackey is in an entirely different league from any other character Cruise has ever played. This miracle of a performance exists because of the perfect marriage of Cruise’s talent and willingness to  go there  and writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson. Mackey is a crass monster, a man whose entire brand is built on treating women like sex toys. When he struts across that stage and demands that we “RESPECT THE COCK!”, it’s difficult not to immediately despise him – but that twisted charisma makes it impossible to look away. We know he can’t be entirely rotten to his core, but is there anyone worth redeeming beneath it all? Over the film’s three hours, we chip away at his thorny exterior until we finally reach the trembling boy inside – and there’s nothing quite like the catharsis that ensues.

Magnolia  offers us a glimpse into Cruise’s vast emotional spectrum; from the clownish, loathsome man riding high on stage to the angry, petulant child caught off-guard during his interview, we see his highs and lows, his fears, his rage. These libido-fueled moments may act as a testament to Cruise’s versatility, but the real magic happens when he finally confronts the father who abandoned him. Every inhale feels totally honest, and it’s likely because it was: Cruise reportedly drew from his own experience with his father  for the scene. I’ve watched the scene dozens of times, and I catch something new with every viewing. The first part of his monologue is all in one take, and the steady rise in tension is nearly unbearable.

“I’m not gonna cry,” he spits out, but his words have already betrayed him – two tears roll down his cheek. It’s when my own tears begin to flow, too, without fail, every single damn time. We’ve spent over two hours hating this man and all that he stands for, but in that moment, and in the complete, full-body sobs that follow, he’s just as vulnerable and devastated as the rest of us, navigating this impossible scenario the best way he can. Cruise goes to a place that few actors might ever dare, reaches deep into his soul to find heartache and resentment and agony that many of us likely can’t fathom.

Tom Cruise may be able to pull off death-defying stunts better than anyone else out there, but he’s accomplished no greater feat than that of  Magnolia , a true spectacle of emotional proportions. Frank “T.J.” Mackey is more impressive than scaling any skyscraper or hanging off the side of a plane, because in the end, Cruise does the impossible: he makes us  feel  for someone we want to see fail. And that’s a mission most would never accept.

Where to Stream  Magnolia

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Magnolia (1999)

Tom cruise: frank t.j. mackey.

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Quotes 

Gwenovier : Come on, Frank. What are you doing?

Frank T.J. Mackey : What am I doing? I'm quietly judging you.

Frank T.J. Mackey : Don't go away, you fucking asshole, don't go away. Don't go away, you fucking asshole, don't go away! Don't go away you fucking asshole!

Frank T.J. Mackey : I will drop-kick those fuckin' dogs if they come near me.

[singing along to Aimee Mann's "Wise Up"] 

Claudia Wilson Gator : It's not / What you thought / When you first began it / You got / What you want / Now you can hardly stand it though / By now you know / It's not going to stop

Jim Kurring : It's not going to stop / It's not going to stop / 'Til you wise up

Jimmy Gator : You're sure / There's a cure / And you have finally found it

Quiz Kid Donnie Smith : You think / One drink / Will shrink you 'til you're underground / And living down / But it's not going to stop

Phil Parma : It's not going to stop

Earl Partridge : It's not going to stop / 'Til you wise up

Linda Partridge : Prepare a list for what you need / Before you sign away the deed / 'Cause it's not going to stop

Frank T.J. Mackey : It's not going to stop / It's not going to stop / 'Til you wise up / No, it's not going to stop / 'Til you wise up / No, it's not going to stop

Stanley Spector : So just... give up

Frank T.J. Mackey : Respect the cock! And tame the cunt! Tame it! Take it on headfirst with the skills that I will teach you at work and say no! You will not control me! No! You will not take my soul! No! You will not win this game! Because it's a game, guys. You want to think it's not, huh? You want to think it's not? Go back to the schoolyard and you have that crush on big-titted Mary Jane. Respect the cock. You are embedding this thought. I am the one who's in charge. I am the one who says yes! No! Now! Here! Because it's universal, man. It is evolutional. It is anthropological. It is biological. It is animal. We... are... men!

Frank T.J. Mackey : [Frank is speaking to followers at his seminar]  Men are shit. What? Men... are... *shit*. What, isn't that what they say? Because we do bad things, don't we? We do horrible, heineous, *heinous*, terrible things. Things that no woman would ever do. No, women, they don't lie. No, women don't cheat. Women don't *manipulate* us. But you see what I'm getting at. You see what society does? Little boys, it's, "Wow, womaaaan!" We are taught to apologize. I am sorry. I am so sorry, baby. I am so sorry. What is it that we need? Is it their pussies? Their love? Mommy wouldn't let me play soccer... and Daddy, he hit me, so that's who I am, that's why I do what I do? Fucking bullshit. I will not apologize for who I am. I will not apologize for what I need. I will not apologize for what I *want*!

Frank T.J. Mackey : In this big game that we play, life, it's not what you hope for, it's not what you deserve, it's what you take. I'm Frank T.J. Mackey, a master of the muffin and author of the Seduce and Destroy system now available to you on video and audio cassette. Seduce and Destroy will teach you the techniques to have any hardbody blonde just dripping to wet your dock. Bottom line? Language. The magical key to unlocking the female analytical mindset. Tap directly into her hopes, her wants, her fears, her desires, and her sweet little panties. Learn how to make that lady "friend" your sex-starved servant. I don't care how you look. I don't care what car you drive. I don't care what your last bank statement says. Seduce and Destroy produces an instant money-back guarantee trance-like state that will get you this - naughty sauce you want fast. Hey - how many more times do you need to hear the all-too-famous line of 'I just don't feel that way about you?'

Frank T.J. Mackey : I'll tell you what I want you to do, Janet! I want you to do your fucking job!

Frank T.J. Mackey : In this life, it's not what you hope for, it's not what you deserve - it's what you take!

Frank T.J. Mackey : Respect the Cock. Tame the Cunt

Frank T.J. Mackey : Do you think they're your friends? They're not your friends. Do you really think she'll be there when things go bad? Huh? When things go wrong? You think again. Fucking Denise. Denise the piece. Oh, you're gonna give me that cherry pie sweet mama baby.

Gwenovier : So where are you from originally?

Frank T.J. Mackey : Around here.

Gwenovier : The Valley?

Frank T.J. Mackey : Hollywood, mainly.

Gwenovier : What did your parents do?

Frank T.J. Mackey : My father was in television. My mother... This is going to sound silly to you.

Gwenovier : Try me.

Frank T.J. Mackey : She was a librarian.

Gwenovier : Why does that sound silly?

Frank T.J. Mackey : I don't know. I guess it doesn't.

Gwenovier : Does your mother still work?

Frank T.J. Mackey : No, she's retired.

Gwenovier : Are you close?

Frank T.J. Mackey : She's my mother.

Gwenovier : Yes, but... she's a woman, too. How does she feel about "Seduce and Destroy"? What does she say?

Frank T.J. Mackey : Well, she says, "You go get 'em, honey."

Frank T.J. Mackey : Men... are shit.

Frank T.J. Mackey : How to pretend like you are nice and caring...

Frank T.J. Mackey : It's not very safe for you here, at the moment.

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The Sacred Frog Storm in ‘Magnolia’

If there’s one thing  Paul Thomas Anderson ‘s Magnolia wants you to know, it’s that there are no coincidences in life. The plot is reliant on this fact and on the understanding that the links between several seemingly unassociated people in the San Fernando Valley bears heavy narrative and thematic weight in the film and will ultimately pay off in a big way. Anderson masterfully reveals the connections of his characters to one another at just the right moments, in order for us to marvel at the non-coincidences we are bearing witness to. While using a fast, exciting soundtrack and flashy stylistic choices like whip pans and match cuts, alongside a host of other techniques, Anderson notifies us that all of this is a carefully orchestrated mosaic that will build toward something monumental. 

And it does. Two hours and forty-five minutes into the film, a frog falls from the sky and explodes on the windshield of Police Officer Jim Kurring ( John C. Reilly ). He is shocked and confused. Of course, we’re a little perplexed, too. But we trust Anderson and understand by now that this cannot be just another coincidence. Indeed, frogs have fallen before. In Exodus 8 of the Old Testament, Moses is told to relay a message to Pharaoh from the Lord, who warns “if you refuse to let [my people] go, behold, I will smite all your territory with frogs” (Exodus 8:2). He then goes into further detail, explaining that “the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into your house, into your bedroom, on your bed, into the houses of your servants, on your people, into your ovens, and into your kneading bowls” (Exodus 8:3-4). 

The climactic moment of Magnolia is evidently a nod to the Bible passage, and Anderson leaves Easter eggs that allude to it throughout the film. A billboard reads “Exodus 8:2” on the side of the road after the first frog falls, a poster referencing the same verse is held up by an audience member at a quiz show, and even little nods to the number 82 are present in weather broadcasts, phone numbers, and many more spots noticeable only to the careful, fifteenth-time viewer. But why reference this passage?

The ultimate intention in casting a storm of frogs upon Egypt in Exodus is to express the total power of God, and emphasize the complete surrender required to be a successful person and a person of faith. The threat of frogs in Exodus explicitly invades every element of a person’s life: their community, their family, their bedroom, their kitchen, and, of course, their psyche. And, in the end, the burden of the storm is so traumatic to the Pharoah that he ends up yielding to the Lord and obeying his command. For now, Exodus’s frog storm has restored divine order in Egypt.

But, apart from little details like the frugal Christian emblems in Officer Jim’s bedroom, Magnolia does not pretend to be a film with overt religious themes. Rather than hold his characters to a particular kind of religious belief-system, Anderson instead signifies a divine intervention enacted through the subversion of a well-known, age-old narrative. Indeed, Magnolia ’s frogs intervene in the lives of the film’s characters, but they do not first pose a command or a question. 

The first frog falls at the moment that Officer Jim turns back to investigate the suspicious behavior of Quiz Kid Donnie Smith ( William H. Macy ), who has just broken into his old workplace to steal money. Instead of questioning Donnie, however, the two are forced to seek shelter together from the raining amphibians. This gives Officer Jim a chance to become the cop he always wanted to be. Earlier in the film, in voiceover, he explained that he does not want to act as a judge but rather as a delegate to maintain good in the world, as well as someone to offer help when it is needed. Jim emphasizes that knowing when to condemn and when to forgive is something he struggles with, but in this moment of being serendipitously brought together, Jim is able to understand Donnie and help him, as opposed to persecuting him. This incident allows Officer Jim to realize his intention, and the true reason he wanted to be a cop.

Because of his yearning to do the right thing and his lack of understanding of how, Jim functions as something of a centerpiece for Magnolia . Lost souls are not uncommon in an Anderson film , and what Jim wants most in the world is to know when it’s time to act, and when it’s time to let go. This conflicting morality (but ultimate will for good) guides the rest of the characters when the San Fernando Valley is smitten with frogs. 

Before seeking shelter, a frog falls on Donnie’s face and knocks him to the ground, crushing his two front teeth. As a retired child-star who feels his youth was stolen from him, Donnie has spent much of his young life attempting to retrieve and relive his childhood through means within his control, the primary of which was getting braces. The slamming of his face into the pavement is a direct divine response to this as if the universe is urging him to let go of the past and move forward with his life. 

Aggressive, misogynistic TV personality Frank T.J. Mackey ( Tom Cruise ) is another example of a character in Magnolia who is unable to move forward from the past. He has built an entire career attempting to foster an alpha-male persona in order to confront (or not confront) the fact that he was abandoned by his father, Earl (Jason Robards), at a young age. Frank reluctantly visits Earl on his death bed at the time of the storm, and, when on the verge of forgiving his father, the loud crash of the frogs on the roof awakens Earl from his coma and allows him to realize his son has forgiven him in his last moments. 

Magnolia is as much about moving on from a traumatic childhood as it is about preventing one. Stanley Berry ( Neil Flynn ), is a child genius, but he is also treated like a prop and used at any and every expense for entertainment. And, when the frogs come down, Stanley seems to be the only one who understands what is going on. “This is something that happens,” he says, simply. This recalls the opening of the film, in which the narrator, an adult reflecting on his childhood, relays a series of uncanny events and says, “This is not just something that happens.”  

But “this is something that happens” and “this is not just something that happens” are not necessarily two proclamations that are at odds with one another. Magnolia reminds us of the value in moving on by also reminding us that there are no coincidences. Claudia ( Melora Walters ) does not forgive her dying father for molesting her, but she does accept that she is worthy of a loving relationship in the touching final moments of the film. Things happen, and they are not coincidences, and the worthy get happy endings.

Related Topics: Magnolia , Paul Thomas Anderson

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