Minority Report Cameo

This appeared in Roger Ebert’s Movie Answer Man Column last week (Thanks Altenyr!):

1. In “Minority Report” there is a scene where Tom Cruise is on a train and a stranger, who is reading the newspaper, looks up at him in suspicion. This man seemed to resemble Cruise’s directorial buddy Cameron Crowe, who on his last project, “Vanilla Sky,” had Spielberg make a cameo.
2. Cameron Crowe replies: “OK, I admit it. It’s me. Steven Spielberg came to the ‘Vanilla Sky’ set one day to visit Tom Cruise, and I urged him to walk into the birthday sequence we were filming. He was a big hit, improvised dialogue, stayed a couple hours, and left threatening to put me into ‘Minority Report.’ Months later, his costumer came to our office with an armful of bizarre ill-fitting clothes, and told me I’d been cast as a futuristic bum. Mercifully, Spielberg later re-cast me as a businessman on the subway holding an interactive USA Today. Excitedly chomping on an unlit cigar, he explained the USA Today would be alive with moving images, a newspaper from the future. He’s a truly joyful director. Cameron Diaz, who was also visiting his set that day, plays a businesswoman talking on a cellphone right behind me. Diaz and Cruise gave me acting tips, which I promptly forgot. It’s a great movie, one of Spielberg’s very best. Not even my poor acting could hold him back.”