By Joshua Tyler
| Published
Tom Cruise is dating Ana de Armas, and it’s the only topic of conversation on most celebrity entertainment sites. Two celebs dating isn’t particularly noteworthy, so most of the conversation seems to be centered around the age gap between the two, and it’s ridiculous.
Cruise and Armas met while discussing plans to make a sci-fi movie called Deeper. Oddly enough, in 2022, Armas made a movie with her former celebrity boyfriend Ben Affleck, called Deep Water.
As for Deeper, it’s the kind of movie only Tom Cruise would risk his spine to make. It’s a high-concept, deep-ocean thriller where Cruise plays a disgraced astronaut sent into a trench so unexplored it might as well be outer space. There, he encounters a force that’s either supernatural, alien, or something worse, we’re not supposed to know yet.
Ana de Armas will co-star as a mysterious figure tied to the mission, and the two are reportedly doing real underwater training because Cruise still thinks death-defying stunts are a flex. In that situation, you can see why the two might get close.
So what’s ridiculous about them dating? It’s not the age gap that’s ridiculous; it’s the fact that anyone cares about it. Tom Cruise is 63 and Ana de Armas is 37. That’s a 26-year gap between the two. What’s ridiculous is that anyone is surprised. Ana de Armas’s dating history should have suggested that this was inevitable. It’s what she has always done.
Ana de Armas has dated across the Hollywood spectrum, with a preference that clearly leans older and more powerful. She’s previously dated Edgar Ramírez, another significant age gap of nearly 20 years. It was her romance with Ben Affleck, 16 years her senior and fresh off his Batman run, that truly put her on the tabloid radar. That ended in 2021.
At this point, Ana de Armas has spent so much of her life dating older men that were she to date a younger one, it would give him a complex. Such a man would end up obsessing over whether he’s wrinkly enough for her or resort to buying boxes of gray hair dye.
Tom Cruise has a long history of dating women significantly younger than him, and the pattern is impossible to ignore. He had a major relationship with Penélope Cruz, which came when he was in his 40s and she was in her 20s. Then came Katie Holmes, 16 years his junior, whom he famously jumped on couches for before things went nuclear. Post-divorce, he was linked to a string of much younger women, including Hayley Atwell (20 years younger) and Vanessa Kirby (also about 20 years younger), both during Mission: Impossible shoots.
Tom Cruise and Ana de Armas’s dating history suggests that not only is there nothing shocking here, they’re probably a perfect match.
Even if they weren’t, I’m not sure any of the age gap morality rules apply here. A huge age gap between partners is usually viewed as scandalous, either because the older one is forcing the younger one’s immaturity, or the younger one is taking advantage of the older one’s age-weakened mental state.
That’s irrelevant in this case. Two rich, influential people with their own thing going are dating while making a sci-fi movie. Neither has some unnatural hold on the other.
Tom Cruise jumps motorcycles off cliffs and flies fighter jets for fun on the weekend. Despite being the age when he can get a senior discount at McDonald’s, he’s clearly still mentally and physically sharp. Meanwhile, Ana de Armas is nearly 40. If she’s still immature and stupid by that age, that’s on her. Given the smart way she’s been managing her career, I doubt it.
Meanwhile, Liam Neeson is dating Pam Anderson, who is 16 years his junior. In response, everyone is celebrating. This is probably because Anderson looks her age, while Ana de Armas still passes for a naive girl in her twenties. But she isn’t, and she likes dating older men.
Tom and Ana have demonstrated clear dating preferences, and in each other, they’ve found the ideal person to fit them. I wish them luck, it’ll only make Deeper better, and we could use a new sci-fi idea in theaters.
