Today we’d like to introduce you to Evan Ferrante.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Evan. So, let’s start at the beginning, and we can move on from there.
Let me begin by saying that my uncanny ability to impersonate the greatest movie star on the planet and somehow manage to make an adequate living at it has been one giant fluke. From a career standpoint, I’m extremely fortunate to naturally possess Tom Cruise’s iconic voice and mannerisms. In addition to these attributes, I’m equally blessed to have his mega-watt smile, boundless source of energy, and approximate height. Because without the aforementioned characteristics, truth be told, my life would be far less interesting. Of course, I didn’t just wake up one day and decide to be a Cruise impersonator. That would be an odd career choice.
The origin of my freakish ability stretches back to 1997 when I was a freshman at Boston University. Cameron Crowe’s masterpiece about a slick sports agent who succumbs to a crisis of conscience had come out a year before. Being the consummate social butterfly that I am, I quickly formed a close-knit group of friends. One of them was Alex, an ambitious young filmmaker who remains one of my closest friends today. He also happened to do a pretty spot-on Jean-Claude Van Damme impression. Alex enthusiastically pointed out that I bore a striking resemblance to Cruise and he encouraged me to learn some lines from Jerry Maguire so that we could join forces with one another.
See, Alex concocted this crazy scheme to meet women by knocking on freshman dorm rooms. If and when they opened the door, we would then launch into a spirited Abbot and Costello- esque routine, alternating between Cruise and Van Damme. Either the door was slammed in our face, or they would let us in, and we’d make new friends. It proved to be a great ice-breaker and worked approx 60% of the time. Long before the age of Tinder, these were just some of the lengths we went in order to befriend the opposite sex. Our routine went something like this—
Knock, knock-
EVAN (TOM CRUISE): Hey, It’s Tom. Tom Cruise. Anybody seen an aircraft carrier around here? (Top gun)
ALEX (JCVD): (in a thick French accent). So…you’re telling me that after 25 years… I have an uncle in Zimbabwe.
EVAN: You don’t know what it’s like to be out here for you. It’s an up at dawn pride swallowing siege that I can never fully tell you about. Just help me, help you… HELP ME…HELP YOU… (Jerry Maguire)
etc…
I believe that this unique ability to channel Cruise was something that lay dormant within me. All that was needed was the right catalyst to awaken the sleeping giant within. At the time, this catalyst was Alex. Anyone we met during my early years at BU, Alex would insist I do my Cruise impression for them. He didn’t take “no” for an answer, and to this day Alex makes sure everyone knows that he is credited with the discovery. From the frat parties at BU to later performing poolside at the famed Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, my Tom Cruise impression became quite the crowd pleaser. Little did I know this was only the beginning and I had barely scraped the surface of it’s potential.
Many years later, when YouTube was just beginning to influence the masses, my girlfriend at the time urged me to post a video of myself impersonating a montage of Tom Cruise’s greatest performances. It was crude… had zero budget… just me, a few costume changes, a whole lot of heart, and an orange pen cap to play the part of “the goldfish”, referring to when Jerry Maguire famously storms out of the office “he helped build.” Thanks to such infamous events in Cruise’s life- the Oprah couch jumping bit, the Matt Lauer incident, the Scientology rant, and the squirt gun prank (my personal favorite), I suddenly had plenty of material to work with and unbeknownst to me at the time, the beginnings of a fruitful career. That’s when things began to really take off for me.
Since then, I’ve traveled the globe impersonating the legendary movie star (London, New Zealand, Australia, and Canada), have made my mark in numerous commercials, films, voicing animated content and film trailers, and have had the pleasure of hosting a wide array of corporate events, working with Disney, Abbott Labs, Tech Crunch, Quiznos, Playboy Radio, FX, DirectTV, and many other companies seeking to harness the unparalleled energy of Cruise. A few years back, I made an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, performing the famous courtroom drama scene from A Few Good Men. I received my highest recognition of all from Tom Cruise himself on EXTRA, where he exclaimed “His voice is uncanny,” while watching videos of me, all the while laughing maniacally. It’s been a surreal journey, let me tell you.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
As a professional Tom Cruise impersonator, I’ve had so many wonderful experiences throughout the years that I’m truly grateful for, but I’ve also faced a number of severe dry spells, which have in turn led to bouts of soul-crushing depression and self-doubt. See, in addition to my work as an impersonator, I’ve also been splitting my time as an independent film producer and content creator since 2002.
At 25, I produced my first narrative feature film, a Hitchcock-esque thriller starring the late Brittany Murphy, called “Across the Hall.” I also produced a string of feature-length socially conscious documentaries for HBO and other premium cable outlets with partners Adrian Grenier, Matthew Cooke, and Robin Garvick at Reckless Productions. But unfortunately, none of these pursuits amounted to much in terms of financial rewards. Unfortunately, that’s the harsh reality many indie film producers face.
Fact is, like many freelancers, I’ve had to hustle on a consistent basis ever since graduating from BU back in the early 2000s, where I’ve been forced to regularly create opportunities out of thin air. The perpetual hustle has been exhausting, to say the least. I’ve always relied on multiple side hustles and streams of income to survive. But when the well is dry, it can be super difficult to stay the course and maintain my sanity and personal relationships.
Luckily, I’ve had a very supportive network around me. And most importantly, I haven’t given up. You give up, it’s game over. No matter the debilitating circumstances being thrown at me, I never threw in the towel. But I sure as hell came close at the age of 26, while living in Astoria, Queens, sitting on the 12k dollars worth of crippling credit card debt with no meaningful employment in sight. I was just barely able to scrape together my rent money with sporadic freelance production assistant work. Apart from experiencing debt for the first time in my life, this was also the first time Tom Cruise would inadvertently become my savior from financial ruin. Allow me to explain.
One night, while lying in fetal position feeling complete and utter dread for my present predicament, like the Universe was against me, I received a message out of the blue on Myspace. This was pre-Facebook. The message was from an Australian based company whom I’d never heard of before, Pacific Magazines. They had seen some of my youtube videos and inquired whether I’d be interested in creating a series of commercial spots for one of their magazines, a tabloid mag called “Famous.” I learned that Australia has a huge appetite for Tom Cruise-related gossip and they wanted me to create something fun and edgy for their brand. I recall them asking me to first put together a bunch of creative ideas, from which they would select one to move forward with.
I was still pinching myself. None of this seemed real. I felt it was akin to one of those Nigerian email scams. I mean, why would anyone grant me the enormous responsibility to produce, direct, and star in a series of commercial spots? That would never happen in the states, at least not at that time when I was first starting out. I thought, “this must be an elaborate, cruel joke someone is playing on me.” But like any opportunity, I had to seize it. There was too much at stake.
If this was, in fact, real and the powers that be actually approved greenlit my project, the money I would make on this would instantly resolve my debt problem. So, I put everything into it. I doubled down. I remember frantically enlisting the help of my older brother Skye, a talented writer, to help me propose some ideas. I wish I had the original ideas saved, but one of them was a bit, how shall I put it, riskier. The non-politically correct premise was the following—Tom Cruise, since he knows everything there is to know about everything, teaches an aboriginal man how to throw a boomerang. The boomerang ends up smacking TC in the head, killing him instantly and sending him off the cliff wall. The client did not go for that one. Instead, they picked the more conservative offering, titled a “Day in the Life of TC,” a three part series that documented, as the title suggests, a day in the life of Tom Cruise, from getting his morning coffee and being blasted in the face with hot steam; to buying salmon and exclaiming “the fish are coming with me”; to attending a premiere with his statuesque former wife, Katie Holmes.
It was funny, but definitely my least favorite of the ten concepts I threw at them. Either way, they approved it and decided to move forward. They asked me to propose a budget for the three spots. I had never done anything of this magnitude before. This was uncharted territory. I was completely winging it. The commercials were to live solely on the web, so I didn’t want to aim too high. Not wanting to scare the client off, I budgeted roughly 20k per webisode. I wanted to ensure professionalism across the board and high-quality elements to surround my killer impression.
For myself, I budgeted roughly 2/3 of the budget for my services as writer, director, producer, and talent. I thought it was fair. So did they apparently, because they didn’t even bat an eye when I submitted the budget. In retrospect, I’m sure I could have gotten more out of them. But I wasn’t in the sort of position to negotiate. I was barely hanging on. The project was a go, and I was to receive my first installment in a matter of weeks via international wire transfer, something I had no experience with. I anticipated the next few weeks to be sheer torture, waiting for the money to hit my account.
During this time, I had my first of many panic attacks and nearly broke it off with my girlfriend at the time. I was an absolute nightmare to be around. Up until the day of the shoot, the money had still not hit my account. The client insisted the wire transfer had been made and they weren’t sure why there would be a delay.
Meanwhile, I had hired an amazing crew, many of them union members who demanded payment the day they worked and not a moment after. I had called in a lot of favors but had also negotiated competitive rates for everyone involved. I was a frantic mess. I had to perform all my duties and maintain my cool, even though I was crumbling on the inside. Later that night, I skyped with the client, who had been on maternity leave apparently. She was finally able to get on the phone with her bank and push the payment through.
An enormous weight was lifted as the first installment cleared in my bank account the following morning. I immediately paid off my debts. Now, I don’t consider myself a God-fearing man. I’m agnostic. I believe in a higher power. Maybe… it’s Tom Cruise. This was the first of many times he indirectly pulled me from the rubble of my existence and dropped me off at brighter pastures.
Through the years, whenever I’ve been in dire straights, Tom Cruise has always been there for me in the form of an unexpected job prospect. He is my spirit animal. So, yes, the struggle has been real, but after bouncing back a number of times, I know that things will be ok. Thanks to Tom Cruise.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Not Tom Cruise – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
I’m recognized as one of the leading Tom Cruise impersonators in the business. I cornered the market early on by posting videos to youtube/funnyordie at their inception and making a big splash. Being first to market helped a great deal in paving my career in tv, film, and voice-overs. And regarding my voice, that’s got to be the biggest competitive advantage I have. See, I’m not a perfect look-alike by any means. I require a wig and sunglasses to maintain the illusion. That being said, I’ve got the voice down pat. I’m most proud of the fact that my impression makes a lot of people genuinely happy, whether it’s being hired to record a private greeting for a loved one on Fiverr or hosting a corporate sales conference in order to boost company morale. It’s almost magical. I derive a great deal of joy from the experience. Frankly, it’s what keeps me in the game.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
I’d like to maybe one day partner with Cruise himself on a project, much like Ben Stiller did in the hilarious sketch from the MTV movie awards where he played Cruise’s dimwitted albeit lovable stunt double Tom Crooze. That would be the pinnacle of success. Although I love performing as Tom, I’m always looking for ways to reinvent myself and explore new creative frontiers.
But as far as impersonating Cruise goes, I’ll continue to down this path as long as there’s a demand for it. I’m writing a one-man show that explores my double life as a Cruise impersonator and the ensuing conflict that arises between the dueling personalities. It’s a bit like Fight Club. Cruise is my Tyler Durden, the uber-confident man I sometimes wish I could be. In reality, I’m just an overly neurotic Jew from New York. Redundant, I know.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.
nottomcruise.com/ - Fiverr: https://www.fiverr.
com/evanferrante - Email: tcimpersonator@gmail.
com - Instagram: @
nottomcruiseofficial - Facebook: @
nottomcruiseofficial - Twitter: @not_tomcruise
Image Credit:
Jonah Light Photography, Moshe Levi Photography
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