Cruise has been an off-putting weirdo from way before that, plus a bizarrely gratuitous homophobe. From the classic and must-read Bronson Pinchot interview with AV Club:

Yep, he was even tinier then.

Not just 12. He sounds like a 12-year-old Joffrey Baratheon. Like, I actually kind of think that there’s a version of an adult who likes to play hide and seek in a huge house who’s pretty cool. But Cruise doesn’t seem to understand how to make friends or find people who share his interests. It sounds like he just…

Rob Lowe said he was “calculating” and “bloodless” when he worked with him on The Outsiders. I think he was 21 or so then, so he was definitely weird even before the whole Scientology thing.

Holy shit. Down the rabbit hole I go!

And here is the quote:

Jennifer’s parents are scientologists, but she has managed to walk the line between not being one herself and still getting invited to all of the parties. She must have some next level self-control.

He’s always been a raging @$$hole. When my high school bf’s oldest brother went off to college he ended up at somme bar with him in in some friends of friends situation and he was awful. That was in ‘88.

As it should! I mean, that coupled with the fact that they don’t really learn anything (unless it’s Scientology-related) in their schools basically guarantees that they won’t become well-adjusted adults.

emotionally and vertically stunted.

I had to double take — looks kind of like a pissed off Affleck!

:( well that makes me feel bad for their kids.

Yeah. Didn’t Katie Holmes make some weird statement once when Suri was a baby about how she was a “lovely person/lady” or something? It’s a baby weirdo.

If I’m remembering correctly, Scientologists just believe that children are mini adults, and should be treated as such?

Our lord Wiki says he got into it in 1990, so he was 27 or 28. I totally thought it was before that. (But he got famous for Risky Business at 20, so probably his 20s were pretty weird even without Scientology.)

I don’t know when they recruited him but if they did it that young it totally makes sense that he’s stunted.

Didn’t they recruit him in his early 20s? If he went from high school to Hollywood to Scientology, he might not have had much opportunity or reason to develop an adult emotional life.

He sounds emotionally stunted. I wonder if he was like that pre-Scientology.

This is gold! I love it. The image of them scolding Suri, what is that, even?? Seriously, I could read about scientology weirdness all day.