Joe Manganiello’s Team Suspects Tom Cruise Blocked Him From Major Role Over Sofia Vergara

Joe Manganiello makes surprising claims about Tom Cruise in his new memoir, Bloodlines.

The 49-year-old actor, who released the book on October 13, revealed that he and his team suspect Cruise, 64, may have influenced the decision to cast someone else as Jack Reacher in Amazon’s Reacher, per Page Six.

Manganiello alleged that Cruise may have blocked his casting because of his then-wife Sofía Vergara.

According to the outlet, the actor was confident that he’d land the role, noting that the streamer’s executives and producers seemed eager to cast him at the time.

The memoir also claimed that Manganiello’s performance impressed showrunner Nick Santora, Skydance owner David Ellison, and even author Lee Child.

According to an excerpt published by Page Six on Monday, October 12, Manganiello recalled Skydance Media executive Don Granger telling him, “You are the closest thing to Jack Reacher that I’ve ever met in my entire life . . . You look like Reacher is described in the books . . . You have his effortless intelligence.”

Despite the positive feedback, the role ultimately went to another actor, Alan Ritchson, prompting Manganiello and his team to question whether Cruise had influenced the casting decision.

It is worth noting that Cruise previously portrayed the lead role in 2012’s Jack Reacher and 2016’s Jack Reacher: Never Go Back.

After losing the part, Manganiello and his team jumped to the conclusion that Cruise “could have potentially come in over the top and vetoed my being cast on account of Sofia.” Manganiello also pointed to Cruise’s alleged involvement as an executive producer on the show. However, there was no official confirmation that Cruise held such a position on the series.

Cruise and Vergara, 54, allegedly dated briefly in 2005. “They do have that history already, even if it was more of a brief dalliance than a fully-fledged romance,” a source told Heat magazine in August 2023.

The source continued to the outlet, “They had a special time together partying in the Hollywood hills and having a blast. Sofia wasn’t really giving out the signals back then that she wanted anything long-term, so it petered out in a totally amicable fashion and they remained friends.”

Manganiello and Vergara were married for nearly eight years before announcing their separation in July 2023. Their divorce was finalized in April 2024.

In Bloodlines, Manganiello opened up about the challenges he faced during his marriage to the Modern Family star, including an alleged incident in which Vergara refused to hug him while fighting an autoimmune illness and ridiculed him for adopting a dog.

“I had to give my gun away because I kept thinking about it, and then the dog came,” the actor revealed to People. “I went from being the patient to the caretaker.”