When Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt began hinting at working together again — decades after Interview with the Vampire (1994) — the public responded with a mix of nostalgia and anticipation. The idea of two titans of stardom sharing the screen once more brings to mind another legendary pair: Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Comparing the two duos is inevitable — and revealing.

Newman and Redford immortalized their chemistry in just two films, but that was enough to cement their place in history as one of cinema’s most charismatic pairs: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and The Sting (1973). Pitt and Cruise, on the other hand, share a shorter and more turbulent history, but they carry the same kind of fascination that always surrounds duos of leading men with contrasting profiles. The difference is that, in their case, a potential reunion wouldn’t be a reprise of youth, but a meeting between veterans — and that might make it even more interesting.

Mentors and protégés (real or projected)

The symbolic construction around these duos passes through another essential element: the idea of mentorship and legacy. Just as Redford was seen as a mirror for Brad Pitt — blond, blue-eyed, with classic looks and a serious inclination toward drama and auteur-driven production — Paul Newman was, for a time, a guiding figure for Tom Cruise, especially during the filming of The Color of Money (1986), which earned Newman his first and only competitive Oscar.

At the time, Cruise was young and impulsive, and he learned from Newman the value of restraint, listening, and silence in performance. He has said that the set was a kind of acting school. Their chemistry works precisely because of the tension between opposites: Newman’s calm and calculated gaze versus Cruise’s nervous exuberance. They didn’t become close afterward, but the encounter was pivotal for Cruise’s evolution as an actor.

In the case of Redford and Pitt, the connection was less explicit on screen, but no less significant. Redford was executive producer of Legends of the Fall (1994), which solidified Pitt’s status as a romantic and tragic icon. When they finally acted together in Spy Game (2001), Redford played the mentor to an impulsive agent portrayed by Pitt — a dynamic that was almost metalinguistic. The film is built as a hall of mirrors, with Pitt acting as a kind of “young Redford,” echoing not just physical features but a very specific type of introspective magnetism. No wonder fans and critics loved to play with the resemblance.

Cruise and Redford: a forgotten pairing

Curiously, Tom Cruise and Robert Redford also appeared together in Lions for Lambs (2007), a political drama that marked Cruise’s debut in a more verbal and reflective role, under Redford’s own direction. The film was more celebrated for its content than for the chemistry between the two, but it reinforces the symbolic entanglement among the four men. Cruise was Newman’s protégé. Pitt, Redford’s informal heir. And in Lions for Lambs, the lines intersect.

Real friendships, mythical friendships

What sets Newman and Redford apart from Pitt and Cruise may be the true, lasting friendship between the former. Despite different personalities, Newman and Redford maintained a strong bond off-screen, full of affection and shared projects. Redford paid tribute to his friend after his death with a public lament: “The only thing that makes me sad is that I never told him how much I loved him.” Their story wasn’t just about cinema — it was about life.

Between Cruise and Pitt, the relationship was more volatile. During and after the Interview with the Vampire, there were reports of tension on set. Pitt once said the experience was uncomfortable, and the media fed the idea of a silent rivalry. But the years passed, both men aged well, and the tone changed. Recently, Cruise praised Pitt as “an incredible actor with bold choices.” Pitt, in turn, acknowledged Cruise’s role in redefining the blockbuster era. Time, as always, smoothed out the rough edges. And now the jokes are about reuniting on screen — “as long as I get to keep my butt in the seat and don’t have to hang off a plane,” Pitt quipped.

The image of the two together on the red carpet for F1, Pitt’s upcoming film, went viral — a sign that the talk might be more serious than it seems.

Duos that feed mythologies

Hollywood thrives on these narratives: duos, friendships, symbolic inheritances. The audience wants to believe that what we see on screen reflects a truth about it. So the comparisons between Cruise and Pitt, and Newman and Redford, may be more desired than accurate — but that hardly matters. Cinema is built on projections, and we project onto these duos what we want to see: brotherhood, rivalry, mutual respect.

If the new Cruise-Pitt project moves forward, it won’t just be a reunion of stars, but a chance to reenact — for a new generation — the kind of partnership that has become rare in today’s cinema. And maybe — just maybe — they’ll finally fill, together, the symbolic space that Newman and Redford left behind: that of a duo that doesn’t need many films to become legend. All it takes is a certain look, a silent exchange, a contained tension — and the myth is reborn.