1983 sports drama All the Right Moves starred an up and coming Tom Cruise and a virtually unknown Lea Thompson. While Crusie may have been new to the game, he wasn't afraid to stand up to filmmakers on behalf of his co-star. Lea Thompson recently spoke about her experience making the film, which required her to go topless. However, it turns out that the script originally called for multiple topless scenes, but with the help of her co-star, that ended up being cut down to one scene, and Cruise helped his co-star feel comfortable in that scene as well. According to Thompson...
This is a funny story about how generous he was. They wanted me to show my breasts twice in the script. I didn't even audition because I didn't want to take my shirt off, but I got the part and was like, 'OK.' Tom managed to talk them out of one of the [nude] scenes, and in the second, he said, 'Well, if she has to be naked, I'll be naked, too.' That's pretty badass! I've always been grateful to him for standing up to the producers.
All the Right Moves was the first major lead role for Lea Thompson, meaning she wouldn't have been in a strong position to bargain with filmmakers regarding the nude scenes. Tom Cruise, as the star of the film, and also something of a bright star on the horizon of Hollywood, while not wielding nearly the power he does today, certainly would have been in a better position to fight the nude scenes. Since he was able to get the filmmakers to cut one scene out of the movie entirely, he clearly was somebody that had some ability to get his way on set even then. These days he uses that power mostly to make sure he gets to do his own stunts. Of course, what makes this story great is that he didn't have to do anything to help his co-star, but he apparently felt it was the right thing to do. Lea Thompson told Closer during her interview that it meant a great deal to her.
Nudity in movies is a fairly gender-biased activity. Male nudity is rarely shown on screen. As such, they don't need to disrobe nearly as often, yet Tom Cruise apparently decided to do so during the one nude scene in All the Right Moves. Getting naked in front of an entire film crew and a camera has to be a somewhat intimidating experience, sharing it with somebody almost certainly helps deal with the nerves.
Lea Thompson would go on to a long career as an actor and she is about to make her feature film debut as a director, so now she get's to decide what happens in front of the camera.
