Tom Cruise spent much of his 2022 in South Africa filming flight sequences in KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and Mpumalanga; he mentioned its beauty and Ubuntu in a recent award acceptance speech, which has left us glowing with pride!
Hollywood, United States (28 February 2023) – Tom Cruise has been making headlines in South Africa ever since he started filming here. He fell in love with the landscape of our beautiful country. Now he is making headlines for talking about South Africa’s beauty and Ubuntu in an award acceptance speech.
In February 2022, Tom Cruise and his team started filming in Mpumalanga and Limpopo. Using Hoedspruit as a base, the action-loving celebrity would land every day after filming and then be driven to his accommodation. Towards the end of his filming, he took the time to walk over to his South African fans to say hello. It was this action that solidified him in the hearts of many South Africans.
Filming continued in South Africa, but it moved over to KwaZulu-Natal’s Drakensberg area. He made tourism officials very happy by choosing such a beautiful backdrop for his flight sequences.
We knew Tom Cruise would fall in love with South Africa, how could he not? But hearing him talk about the country’s beauty, to the world’s most famous room of people, warmed our hearts. What really did it in the end though, was his teaching the audience about Ubuntu.
Ubuntu is a local term meaning “humanity”. It is sometimes translated as “I am because we are”, or “humanity towards others”. It is a term that guides many South Africans and brings us great pride!
We loved that Tome Cruise used the term to thank everyone for his award. He was awarded the David O. Selznick Achievement Award during the Producers Guild of America Awards. Take a look at his acceptance speech below. He starts talking about South Africa at 26 seconds.