Tom Cruise “almost” took Pitt’s place in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”

Tom Cruise has played a number of well-known roles on screen. But the Top Gun: Maverick star missed a great chance to replace Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which was nominated for an Oscar in 2008.

Pitt played the main part in the romantic drama, and David Fincher was in charge of the direction. The movie was nominated for 13 Oscars and won three of them.

The 59-year-old Babylon star was praised for his amazing performance in the movie, which earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in a Leading part. However, Cruise was about to play the lead part in the movie, which was going to be directed by Steven Spielberg.

Spielberg told Entertainment Weekly about the time he and Cruise were almost going to work together on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

“I was friends with Tom Cruise. David Geffen put us together when he was a kid and made Risky Business. So, Tom and I had been close friends for a very long time.

“We’d thought about working together. We had talked about doing Benjamin Button together long before Minority Report. But neither of us could figure out what to do. So when Minority Report came out, it wasn’t unusual for me to send him the script. But this is the one where he said, “Let’s do this together.”

Cate Blanchett and Taraji P. Henson also had big parts in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, along with Brad Pitt.