Steve Pratt discovers that Tom Cruise came within inches of being struck in the neck by a sword during the making of The Last Samuria after insisting on doing all his own stunts.

The megastar played down the incident, which came after a year of intensive training to turn himself into a Japanese warrior.

WHEN you're the biggest movie star on the planet, you can do pretty much what you want. And what Tom Cruise wanted to do was on the $100m adventure The Last Samurai was perform all his own stunts..

He spent nearly a year studying kendo, karate and other Japanese martial arts. He learnt how to handle a heavy sword, while wearing armour and riding a horse. He became super-fit.

Then he insisted on doing all his own stunts, which is what you'd expect from the actor who performed a perilous mountain-climbing sequence for Mission Impossible II. He believes in earning his $20m a picture pay cheque, no matter what the physical risks.

But he nearly pushed his luck too far on The Last Samurai, in which he plays an American Civil War veteran recruited by the Emperor of Japan to help put down a rebellion by samurai warriors. His loyalties are tested as he's drawn into the samurai way.

Cruise almost lost his head, literally, during one sword-fighting scene. An animatronic horse apparently malfunctioned and didn't pull the actor's head back as co-star Hiroyaki Sanada swung his sword. His blade stopped barely an inch from the superstar's neck.

The Japanese swordsman were reportedly stunned by how close he came to hitting Cruise during the battle scene. "You know I was so scared, if I hit him I cannot live any more. I was drenched in sweat, but Tom never blinked," he says.

Cruise dismissed the incident as part of the job and said he trusted Sanada's swordmanship. He also points out that the aluminium swords weren't razor sharp. "They could still cut your finger off. I was more concerned about not hurting someone else," he says.

He has plenty of opportunities to put his sword training into play during the six-month shoot, which including filming in Japan and New Zealand.

"From a production point of view, it has the broadest scope of anything I've done in my career. It's physical, it's dramatic, it's romantic and it's philosophical," says 41-year-old Cruise.

The hard physical exertion had a noticeable impact on the actor's physique. "Using those swords really builds up your forearms," he says. "I knew something was working when I tried putting on one of my suits and couldn't get my arm in the sleeve."

As well as fighting, he immersed himself in the samurai's code of bushido, also known as the way of the warrior. He wouldn't have made the movie if it hadn't explained this code. "The purity of that is stronger than any battle scene we could have dreamed up," he adds.

It was only when Cruise signed up that director Ed Zwick finally secured the budget for the film, which he'd been planning for several years. Part of the attraction for the actor came through his fascination with Japanese culture and the world of the samurais. As well as beefing himself up, he grew his hair long and learnt Japanese. "If I do something it's gong to be all the way," he explains. "But this was different in that it took me almost a year to be able to physically make this picture. I honestly didn't know if I could find that kind of physical elegance and movement the samurai have."

He credits his Scientology beliefs for giving him the inner peace he projects in the movie about deeply religious warriors. Being a Scientologist has given him "great stability and the tools that I use", he adds.

Currently with Spanish actress Penelope Cruz, Cruise enjoys going back to a different time and place on screen. "It's authentic, even though the story is fiction," he says of The Last Samurai. "It's an adventure but has content. One of the great things about being an actor is I get to go to all these places and get to learn about people, and that's the most enjoyable thing for me."

Ironically, he made The Last Samurai after backing out of Cold Mountain, another drama with an American Civil War background that starred his ex-wife Nicole Kidman.

The box office receipts for Cruise's new movie on the American opening, however, have not been as strong as many predicted. The signs are that it isn't going to be as big a hit as many of his other films.

He could still have a chance of the Oscar that has so far eluded him. He's been nominated three times - twice as best actor (for Born On The Fourth Of July and Jerry Maguire) and once as best supporting actor (for Magnolia).

Being the biggest movie star in the world would appear to be enough for him. "Awards are wonderful, but my journey is not towards that," he says. "If it happens, it'll be a blast. If it doesn't it's still been a blast."

Cruise is currently getting physical as a contract killer who goes on a killing spree in Collateral, directed by Michael Mann. Then there are plans for another Mission Impossible thriller playing super-agent Ethan Hunt. "Those films are always tough to do but that's the challenge of it. If I don't feel I can do it, then I won't. I won't do a three if it's not right," he says.

* The Last Samurai (15) opens in cinemas tomorrow

Published: 08/01/04