SUBMITTED BY Scooby

August 29, 2003 — Tom Cruise spoke to CBS about his fascination with the Japanese culture:

"The Japanese culture, I'm fascinated by it and the purity of what the samurai stand for," said Cruise, who trained for nine months and put on 20 pounds of muscle for the film's elaborate sword fights. "Courage, honor, compassion, these are part of the code of the samurai. Honesty and justice. There are so many aspects of that culture worth looking at and paying homage to."