Amy Poehler Spills Why Tom Cruise’s Flip Gave Her the Ultimate ick
Look, I don’t want to be the one to say it, but apparently a grown man doing a backflip can ruin a girl’s crush faster than you can say “Hollywood stunt.” Amy Poehler reluctantly confessed on her “Good Hang” podcast with guest René Rapp that flexible men—specifically those who bust out splits or flips—make her stomach tie itself in knots. Yes, Amy Poehler. The same comedian who taught us to love Leslie Knope now admits it only takes one ill-timed cartwheel to tank her attraction.
Poehler jumped straight into the ugliness of modern dating by declaring, “I don’t like men doing the splits. I don’t find that attractive.” When Rapp echoed that flips feel cringe-worthy, Poehler doubled down: “Any kind of goofy gymnastics,” she grumbled, “and I’m out.” She pointed to a very specific culprit: Tom Cruise in 1983’s The Outsiders. Senior Reporter at HuffPost dropped the exclusive earlier this week, and Poehler couldn’t resist. She remembered being starstruck by Cruise’s puppy-dog eyes—until he randomly vaulted off a car in full backflip mode. “He was cool until that point,” Poehler sighed, “and then I was like, ‘Mm, no. He lost it for me.’”
Of course, this isn’t just Poehler whining for clicks. We’ve got evidence. On Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast, Cruise’s Outsiders co-star Rob Lowe spilled that director Francis Ford Coppola insisted the cast master backflips—purely because he thought it was a neat visual. According to Lowe, Coppola “had a lot of ideas that I don’t know what was going on,” and only Cruise, that “relentlessly competitive” newcomer, stuck with the stunt long enough to actually land it. Lowe even admitted on the June 2020 episode that Cruise’s backflip happens “for no reason,” so when he “runs out of the house and does a backflip just to do it,” viewers should feel free to raise an eyebrow—or two.
So there you have it: Hollywood legend meets comedian’s turnoff in a perfectly timed cringe collision. Poehler, who’s battled everything from improv mishaps to Parks and Recreation’s endless waffle breakfasts, never expected to add male gymnastics to her list of no-gos. Yet here we are.
Did we need to be told this? No. Was it hilarious to hear it? Absolutely. I told you so: sometimes the simplest things—like keeping feet firmly on the ground—are the hardest lessons for Hollywood’s fine-tuned pros. And that, dear reader, is why we can’t have nice things.
Sources: Celebrity Storm and HuffPost, Armchair Expert Podcast with Dax Shepard
Attribution: Creative Commons Licensed
