Tom Cruise Admits to Childhood Desire to "Kill Hitler"

Fresh off a successful opening of his new movie "Valkyrie," Tom Cruise has an admission that, coming from any other actor, may seem a bit odd. Given Cruise’s unusual outbursts and assertions in the past, however, this one may simply be par for the course. Cruise, who was recently in Seoul, South Korea for the opening of his new film there, told reporters that as a child, he wanted to kill Hitler.

Said Cruise, "I always wanted to kill Hitler, I hated him. As a child studying history and looking at documents, I wondered, why didn’t someone stand up and try to stop it? When I read the script, it was entertaining and informative to know what the challenges were and what it was like to be in the environment." The script to which Cruise refers, of course, highlights the real-life story of Colonel Claus Von Stauffenberg, whom he plays in the movie and who planted a briefcase bomb under a table at Hitler’s military headquarters in real life. Cruise, relishing the role that helped him live out his childhood fantasy, also noted, "I’ve never heard this story before…it turned out to be an incredible adventure, just to be there and shoot at these locations that Stauffenberg was. It was a very powerful experience and hopefully it will communicate with the audience."

Despite Germans generally taking no small amount of pride in Von Stauffenberg’s attempt on Hitler’s life, they were generally not happy about Cruise’s role in the film, due primarily to his ties to Scientology, which Germany does not recognize as a religion, but instead considers a cult.