Tidbits of information about the private lives of Tom Cruise and his estranged wife Katie Holmes continue to make headlines in the wake of their pending divorce. Cruise’s former manager Eileen Berlin discussed the break-up and offered insight into the actor’s personality during a recent interview with The Daily Mail. Berlin claims she saw “warning signs of Cruise’s destructive behavior early on,” according to excerpts republished by the New York Daily News. Berlin worked for Tom Cruise from 1980-1983, before he became an international movie star.
“It was almost like he had to prove he was wanted – or maybe he wanted to feel loved. I wasn’t surprised Katie broke up with him. I was just surprised it lasted as long as it did. Tom was moody and would get angry in a snap of your fingers,” Berlin told The Daily Mail.
Cruise’s former manager also stated the actor once told her he would “channel his rage into his roles.” She notes he was “outwardly” polite to her and her husband. Eileen Berlin was reportedly one of the “few outsiders” Cruise ever became “close too” and was somewhat of a “surrogate mother and mentor” to the actor before he became famous, according to The Daily Mail.
“His mom asked him to leave her house. I think because he had a teenage drinking problem. She had remarried and he harbored a lot of anger and resentment at his natural father, who had deserted him and his three sisters,” Berlin told The Daily Mail.
The recent interview with Berlin is reportedly the first time she has spoken publicly about Tom Cruise, who signed with her shortly after his eighteenth birthday. According to her statements during The Daily Mail interview, Cruise exhibited a lot of “pent-up anger” about his “abusive childhood” and failed marriages. Born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV, he was reportedly bullied by his classmates because he suffered from dyslexia and was beaten and eventually abandoned by his father. When he turned 15, Cruise made plans to enter a seminary school and become a priest.