Slightly before Tom Cruise apparently lost his mind and began publicizing his new love affair with Katie Holmes (or rather, the couple began cross-promoting each other’s new films), the actor/producer/megastar gave what could possibly be his last coherent interview, speaking on subjects ranging from his acting process, his collaboration with Steven Spielberg, and his view of the purpose of movies and how they contribute to the world.

During a recent conference call interview promoting his new War of the Worlds opus, Cruise said that before he works with a new filmmaker, he views all of their movies.

“It doesn’t matter if I have known them for 20 years or they have been friends and I have seen their movies before,” he notes. “Before I work with them, I really take the time to go back and just look at the journey that they have taken as filmmakers.” Cruise says this allows him “as an artist… the opportunity to be part of that process” and the ability to push the director in terms of creating the story.

War of the Worlds gave Cruise the opportunity to collaborate with director Steven Spielberg once again. The actor describes Spielberg as “without a doubt one of the greatest storytellers we have had in cinema; certainly the most prolific one when you look at him in terms of what he produces and directs.”

The collaboration came about after their work together on the 2002 film Minority Report. When that film wrapped, each asked the other what projects he wanted to work on next. “[Spielberg] mentioned three movies and the last one was War of the Worlds, and I looked at him and said, ‘That is the one,'” Cruise explains.

They kicked around the idea for a while and signed on screenwriter David Koepp (Jurassic Park, Spider Man) “and everything aligned.”

Cruise rejects comparisons between previous versions of the source material, as the new film is an update of the H.G. Welles novel, set in contemporary New Jersey.

“What you have to know about this film is that it is not a remake of the 1953 film,” Cruise says. Nor is it a remake of the Orson Welles’ radio play, but rather an idea spawned from the brains of two of the most successful box-office draws of the 20th century.

When discussion turns to Cruise’s opinion of America’s current role in the world and whether the film can be read as an allegory of present-day issues, Cruise suggests it is indeed applicable, because mankind has several common foes.

“When you look at the enemies we have, I believe what we should be doing is uniting and respecting each other’s cultures instead of fighting each other over things like oil and territory that has gone on century after century,” the actor opines. “When you look at illiteracy, you look at crime, you look at drug addiction and immorality, no matter where you are-and the places I have traveled from Japan to Africa-it is the same from all walks of life. Those are the enemies of man.”

Although he does not support an American policy that endorses war, he says that it is “easy to criticize what others are doing. Instead of talking about it, why don’t people do something about it? Why don’t they start going out and creating random acts of kindness?”

The actor embraces this worldview, and acts on his strong beliefs relating to certain subjects. “I am very outspoken about the child drugging and psychiatry,” he says, prefacing his recent comments regarding former pal Brooke Shields. “Psychiatry is an ideology that has caused more deaths in [a] 15-year period than four wars… actually all the wars that the Americans have fought in. So I am very, very outspoken about these things and I [think] it is robbing the culture at its core.”

When asked how his films contribute to the culture that he hopes to improve, Cruise brings up his film The Last Samurai.

“I think when you look at [that] movie, the reason I made that film was because I had been to Japan many times, and I know that there was racism and people did not understand that culture, where there is such great beauty in that culture,” he says. “I wanted to make a movie that celebrated that culture so people could have an understanding. I know that communication is the only way of resolving problems. Wars never do that.”

Ultimately, Cruise realizes that everything is relative: “People are going to go to the movie and they are going to respond however they are going to respond. But as a man, those are the things that I work towards.”

Considering that his recent media antics have lowered public opinion of Cruise and his exploits (A recent Entertainment Weekly poll showed that 61% of all respondents stated that they like Cruise less, and 43% said that his recent statements on Shields’ postpartum depression and his over-the-top Oprah appearances would likely dissuade audiences from seeing War of the Worlds), it remains to be seen whether Cruise can win back the disaffected masses through his movie magic, or whether his outsized personality will end up hurting the project he sought to promote in the first place.

War of the Worlds opens in theatres June 29.