--- --- # Tom Cruise and Conan O'Brien Had a Hilariously Awkward Drive Around Town by [Nick Romano / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Nick Romano / Entertainment Weekly Sep 27, 2017 2:01 PM UTC by [Nick Romano / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Nick Romano / Entertainment Weekly Sep 27, 2017 2:01 PM UTC [Tom Cruise](http://ew.com/movies/2017/09/20/tom-cruise-partially-blamed-american-made-plane-crash/) was so excited to do something like [Carpool Karaoke](http://ew.com/tv/2017/09/21/foo-fighters-carpool-karaoke-james-corden/) or, at the very least, a spin on Jerry Seinfeld’s [_Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee_](http://ew.com/tv/2017/08/21/jerry-seinfeld-jerry-lewis-comedians-in-cars/). It’s really the reason anyone becomes a successful actor in the first place, right? To ride around cars with famous late-night personalities and sing karaoke. But Cruise didn’t go on James Corden or Seinfeld’s shows. He went with Conan O’Brien, whose idea to “blow up the Internet” wasn’t what the A-lister was expecting. “My thing is we take it back to basics… we just drive,” O’Brien said. Now, when he said “just drive,” he meant “just drive.” Cruise tried discussing his new movie, [_American Made_](http://ew.com/movies/2017/09/26/american-made-review/), but O’Brien really needed to concentrate on driving since the U.K. has “tricky” road rules. The _Mummy_ star tried breaking the ice again by mentioning a story Jack Nicholson told him. “Maybe we could just keep that story for later,” the late-night host said as he tried to get around a roundabout. Cruise had a moment of panic when O’Brien mentioned his revoked driver’s license for driving under the influence, and again when he realized the child lock was activated on his door. Eventually, Cruise takes advantage of the ride with a 45-minute nap, but upon waking, he learned their ride was just getting started. Watch 11 minutes of sheer awkwardness in the comedic bit above. _This_ [_article_](http://ew.com/tv/2017/09/27/tom-cruise-drives-around-london-with-conan-obrien-for-11-awkward-minutes/) _originally appeared on_ [_EW.com_](http://www.ew.com) Tom Cruise and Conan O'Brien Drive Around London in Video ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4958855/conan-obrien-tom-cruise-london-drive/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4958855/conan-obrien-tom-cruise-london-drive/"},"headline":"Tom Cruise and Conan O'Brien Had a Hilariously Awkward Drive Around Town","datePublished":"2017-09-27T14:01:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:47:36.443Z","description":"It wasn't exactly Carpool Karaoke","url":"https://time.com/4958855/conan-obrien-tom-cruise-london-drive/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","celebrities"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nick Romano / Entertainment Weekly"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4958855/conan-obrien-tom-cruise-london-drive/","name":"Tom Cruise and Conan O'Brien Had a Hilariously Awkward Drive Around Town"}}]}] ```