Despite the glorious sunshine, today feels like a rather dull and uneventful day when compared to the madness that was April 3rd 2013, a day that will go down in Dublin history as the day that Tom Cruise returned to these Emerald shores once more. On Twitter there was scarce a tweet without a mention of the man himself while Facebook feeds were jampacked with blurry snaps of the actor gracing the red carpet. Security at Dublin's Savoy Cinema was at an all time high as the star of Universal Pictures' Oblivion, along with his leading lady and former Bond girl Olga Kurylenko and director Joseph Kosinski, turned out in style.
Marking a personal highlight in my own career, I was there along with a whole host of other interviewing hopefuls to catch a moment with the biggest movie star on the planet. Having shivered in the brisk evening sunshine while Tom gave each and every fan the time they deserved, signing autographs and taking photos, eventually, we had our moment.
Despite all of the negative talk surrounding Mr Cruise - the Scientology, the relationships, the jumping on couches - when you strip all of that back, what you are left with is a damn good actor and a surprisingly humble guy. Tom was more than happy to spend time with everyone, giving us far more than the monosyllabic murmurs we're used to with celebrities of this ilk. Carefully considered answers and that genuinely beaming smile (his teeth are actually dazzling) made for quite the enjoyable journalistic experience. Hence my post interview, deer-caught-in-headlights facial expression. Profile pic right there.
I also caught up with the gorgeous Olga Kurylenko and Joseph Kosinski on the red carpet, however we'll have full length interviews to come with those two as well. Stay tuned!
Oblivion hits Irish cinemas on April 10th and with a stellar soundtrack from M83 I highly recommend it.