Rob Lowe has recalled his experience sharing a room with Tom Cruise during the audition for The Outsiders, in which the Mission: Impossible actor went “ballistic”.

On the podcast Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, Lowe told the story regarding a second stage of auditions for Francis Ford Coppola’s 1983 coming-of-age film.

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“All of the LA people survived the LA auditions, and then the hand-picked people had to go to New York to face the New York version,” Lowe explained.

“[It was the] first time I ever stayed at The Plaza Hotel, and we check-in and Tom finds out that we’re sharing a room and just goes ballistic.”

He continued, praising the actor who was 18 at the time. “I remember going, ‘Wow, this guy is the real deal.’ I mean it made me laugh, it was gnarly. But in the end of it, you can’t argue with the results. He’s had his eye on the ball since day one.”

The Outsiders was adapted from the 1967 novel of the same name by S. E. Hinton, taking inspiration from Jo Ellen Misakian, a librarian at Lone Star Elementary School in California, and her students.

Referring specifically to Cruise, the actor said: “The notion that an 18-year-old actor with a walk-on part in Endless Love and like a 7th lede in Taps could have that kind of like wherewithal…

“He ended up being the only one who could do a backflip. It is in the movie for no reason. Just to do it.”

Elsewhere, Dougray Scott said last month that Tom Cruise prevented him from playing Wolverine.