Tom Cruise didn't need to be coaxed into chaps and a glittery gargoyle codpiece for Rock of Ages. It was his idea. 

Director Adam Shankman says he and Cruise found a picture of the lead singer of ‘80s band W.A.S.P. who was wearing a codpiece that shot flames out of it.

They both laughed about it and Shankman thought that was that, until he got a call from his costume designer.
“Tom wants a codpiece,” Shankman remembers her saying.

“I was like, ‘OK’. She’s like, ‘No, not just a normal codpiece, like a giant gargoyle head codpiece with a long red tongue’.”

Cruise, who plays ‘80s rock god Stacee Jaxx in the movie based on the Broadway musical, didn’t stop there.
“When we did the very first table reading, he showed up as Stacee Jaxx,” co-star Mary J. Blige says.

“We’re not even on the camera yet and he came with his entourage and his tassle jacket and his cowboy hat. Everybody was just looking in awe.”

But Rock of Ages co-writer Justin Theroux (aka Jennifer Aniston’s beau) wasn’t surprised. He helped pen the screenplay for Tropic Thunder, in which an unrecognisable Cruise played the foul-mouthed, angry studio executive Les Grossman.

“He’s really willing to go there and go out as far on a limb as you can write him, which is kudos to him because it’s courageous to play such a broad, crazy (character),” he says.

Theroux says Jaxx was written to be a mash-up of rock stars such as Axl Rose, Steve Tyler and Jim Morrison.

That rock-star decadence is the backdrop for Rock of Ages’ rock’n’roll love story between country girl Sherrie (Julianne Hough) and city guy Drew (Diego Boneta). A jukebox musical, the movie features music from the likes of Def Leppard, Joan Jett, Journey, Bon Jovi, Pat Benatar and Twisted Sister.

>> Rock of Ages (M) opens today.

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