From 1988: How Tom Cruise learned to be a flashy bartender

Thirty years ago, Tom Cruise was already a bona fide movie star.

He'd already been seen on the big screen in The Outsiders, Risky Business, Top Gun and The Color of Money.

Broken bottles, fearful onlookers

"When I started out, I interviewed about 35 bartenders," said Cruise, explaining that he needed to be able to convincingly play a flashy, high-end bartender (which might be called a mixologist today).

Cruise said Cocktailneeded to be able to convince the audience that his co-star Bryan Brown was "the best bartender they've ever seen" and that Cruise's own character could then develop intoa "star bartender" in his own right.

The mega-star admitted to breaking five bottles when filming and to losing a bet in the process. Brownbroke only four, which left Cruise a bottle short of victory.

"Well, that's not bad because that's hard to do," Midday co-host Valerie Pringle told him.

"I was surprised. I thought I was going to break many more than that," Cruise said. "The people that were in front of me, though, were a little nervous when we were flipping the bottles."