Tom Cruise may have won himself a load of brownie points after saying he would do all he can for his kids.
'Nobody is going to mess with my kids. Nobody,' Cruise, a single father, told Diane Sawyer on the ABC television channel in an interview that will be aired on Thursday.
Cruise and ex-wife actress Nicole Kidman share custody of their adopted children Isabella, 12, and Connor, 9.
The swashbuckling star of the new thriller Collateral said though his kids live in a tough world and he cannot protect them all the time, he wants to ensure they are geared to handle it.
'How you protect someone is you give them the ability to think for themselves,' he said. 'And the mistake I would make is by not properly arming them.'
Cruise said his belief in Scientology had brought him the 'validation of what I thought' and boosted his self-belief. His faith gave him 'tools that I can use in my life.'
'I learned early on the struggles and that there's problems in life and [I'm] trying to figure out ways to resolve those problems,' said the 42-year-old actor, who was listed among People magazine's 50
Cruise is single again after breaking up with actress Penelope Cruz in March.
The actor, who was diagnosed with dyslexia as a child, devotes time to helping learning-disabled children.
'Not being able to learn something is a prison,' he said, adding that not being able to think and decide for oneself can be 'very painful' and 'isolating.'
Cruise, who recently said he was not going to give up on love and marriage, has attracted a long line of admirers, the latest being Collateral co-star Jamie Foxx.
Tom plays a contract killer who rides from one hit to another along with a hostage cab driver (Foxx).
Foxx felt working with the superstar would boost his standing with women. 'I'm going nuts because I'm thinking other things,' he says. 'Like how popular I'm going to be with the ladies when I say I'm working with Tom Cruise.'
Photograph: Getty Images
