"Jack Reacher" cast dishes on working with Tom Cruise

(CBS) Tom Cruise is in full gear in his newest action film, "Jack Reacher."

The Hollywood A-lister may come up a few inches short of  Reacher's larger-than-life physical description in Lee Child's best-selling  novels, but Cruise certainly gets his hands dirty here.

Story: Tom Cruise says Jack Reacher's shoes fit him fine

At 50 years old, Cruise performed most of his own stunts in "Reacher," including some  dangerous car chase scenes through the streets of Pittsburgh. But, maybe it's not all about the adrenaline.

When Cruise's co-stars Rosamund Pike ("Wrath of the Titans") and David Oyelowo ("Rise of the Planet of the Apes") sat down with CBSNews.com in New York to discuss the project, they told us that dialogue was even more important than the stunts in this action thriller.

"Tom Cruise and I, in preparation for our scenes, were watching films from as wide-reaching as 'The Thomas Crowne Affair' [the 1968 version] to [Alfred Hitchock's] 'Notorious,' to 'What's Up Doc'" Pike told us, "Screwball comedies, we were watching to kind of get that fast pattern. Because we knew that the chemistry between these characters was going to be about wit, about brain power. And we really rehearsed."

"In a lot of movies, the narrative stops for the action," Oyelowo added, "You get this big action piece, and then back to the story. And that ultimately gets very dull after a while. That's the opposite of what we do in this film."

Dialogue aside, viewers might want to be cautioned, the plot does center around a mass shooting that unfolds at the very beginning of the film during the opening credits, a scene some may find reminiscent of the recent deadly attack in Newtown, Conn. That was  one  reason  why the Hollywood premiere was scrapped Wednesday and the Pittsburgh premiere  was  turned into a special screening without a red carpet.

We'll see if viewers are ready for "Jack Reacher" when it opens this Friday.

Catch our interview with Oyelowo and Pike in the video at the top of this story.

Ken Lombardi

Ken Lombardi is an entertainment reporter for CBS News. He has interviewed over 300 celebrities, including Clint Eastwood, Oprah Winfrey and Tom Hanks.

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