When I think of Tom Cruise a lot of words come to mind. Wee. Peculiar. Elfin. What I don’t think of are big strong man hands. But being that Tom Cruise is Tom Cruise and thus quasi-delusional by his very definition, he has no clue that the rest of the world sees him that way. Tom thinks he’s still the masculine leading man he used to be in the days of old. And apparently he really wanted Ben Stiller to play up that angle in his upcoming film Tropical Thunder.

Ben Stiller recently spoke to Elle magazine about Tom Cruise’s role in the upcoming satire “Tropic Thunder,” and reported that Cruise had some interesting thoughts about his character.

“Tom said… ‘I want to play the studio guy. I want to dance, and I want to have big hands,’ ” Stiller told the magazine. “I’d never thought about the size of a character’s hands, ever. …Tom was doing this little dance, and I was like, ‘This is insane. If this thing was on YouTube, it would be all over the world. It would be a crazy screensaver.’ ”

Stiller’s complete interview, where he also discusses his inspiration for “Tropic Thunder,” is available in the September issue of Elle, on newsstands Aug. 11.

[From MSNBC’s The Scoop]

“‘I want to have big hands.’” There are just so many jokes I could make about that. They’re almost too easy. But I’ll stick with the (slightly) less obvious and point out that it’s pretty damn hard to change the size of your hands. I know this because I unfortunately do have man hands. Or so I’m convinced. And I can tell you right now, it’s not everything it’s cracked up to be Tom. That whole thing about big hands equaling a big penis is bullshit. I can’t even find mine. And I can only wear stretchy gloves, like the kinds little kids wear. It’s totally not worth it Tom. Focus on what you can control. Focus on the dance.

Here’s Tom and Katie at the US MotoGp in Laguna Seca, California on July 7th. Images thanks to WENN.