A LINE FROM TOM CRUISE'S NEW MOVIE, COLLATERAL? NOPE. IT'S A QUOTE FROM ONE OF OUR HARDEST-TO-GET INTERVIEWS EVER, IN WHICH THE HOLLYWOOD HEAVYWEIGHT REVEALS HE REALLY IS JUST A REGULAR GUY.
"It was at night, and I remember driving," Tom Cruise says of his first day in Los Angeles.

He'd carried visions of the legendary coast as he bounced with his family across America, from Syracuse to Louisville and beyond. By 14, he had attended 15 different schools, always the new kid. Desperate to find his place, he tried every sport and extracurricular activity. After he hurt his knee wrestling, someone suggested acting, and the moment Cruise stepped on stage, in a high school production of Guys and Dolls, he knew he'd found his home. At 18, he moved to New York, where he lived on hot dogs and worked multiple jobs to support evening acting classes. When the casting calls came, the kid was ready, and in 1981 he turned what was originally a one-line part in the teenage military school movie Taps into a breakout role that sent him straight to L.A., where his buddy Sean Penn picked him up at the airport.

"We drove down to the beach, and then we went and parked outside of Nicholson's house," Cruise remembers. "I think we even looked for Brando's house. And we went out to Hoffman's house out at the beach. We sat outside for quite a while, and we said, 'Maybe we should just go knock on the door.' We didn't. But I remember that night."

Now the kid is the most famous actor in the world - a three-time Oscar nominee - debuting his 27th film, Collateral, this month at the ripe old age of 42.