A gaunt-looking Tom Cruise made his return to The Today Show with Matt Lauer. Cruise’s last appearance with Lauer in 2005 was a memorable one in which he criticized the use of antidepressants and claimed that postpartum depression could be cured with vitamins. Lauer countered that friends of his have been helped by psychiatric drugs and Cruise called him “glib.” Lauer and Cruise have since made peace with each other, with Cruise cracking some good-natured jokes at Lauer’s expense at his roast this October.

The first thing Lauer and Cruise addressed on the show this morning was the elephant in the room, but it seemed like only the audience could see it because they were pretty comfortable with each other. Cruise came across as both earnest about and embarassed by his 2005 outburst. I think he handled explaining it very well.

On the “you don’t know the history of psychiatry” scandal
Lauer: This isn’t a rematch… Without going into the subject matter I’m just curious, what was the reaction on your end to the last time we sat down?

Cruise: I went back and I looked at it… I thought about it a lot seriously. It was a subject matter that’s important and being debated in the public and that’s where it should be. After looking at it I really thought, it’s not what I had intended. In looking at it I thought ‘that came across arrogant.’ That’s one of those things you go ‘OK, I could have absolutely handled that better….’ I didn’t communicate it the way I wanted to communicate it. That’s not the person that I am.”

On the press backlash against him and how he dealt with it
Cruise: I think it was a confluence of events that happened at that time. I think it was at the end of a PR tour a lot of stuff was going on.”

Lauer: How do you deal with it emotionally?
Cruise: I learned a really good lesson… I understand the spin of it. I’ve lived 25 years of this kind of stuff. Certainly things were also twisted and misrepresented. I just take responsibility for it… good lessons. I’m here to entertain people. Certain issues and things… have a time and a place and proper environment. When I’m promoting films… that’s what I want to talk about.

On whether he wants to talk about Scientology
Lauer: It’s my understanding you decided don’t want to talk about Scientology any more.
Cruise: That’s actually not true. It’s something – I’ve been a Scientologist 25 years… I think there’s a time and a place for it. Things can get misunderstood and twisted. When people are tuning in to hear about my movie… that’s what I’m here to talk about. If I don’t talk about it, it’s like ‘why aren’t you talking about it?’ If I do talk about it, it’s like ‘you’re proselytizing.’

I’m here to entertain people.

[Transcribed from Cruise’s appearance on the Today Show, air December 15, 2008]

Matt said that there were no hard feelings after the interview contrary to public belief, and then he talked about Tom’s funny speech at his roast. Tom talked about his family, calling Katie “an amazing woman,” and added “also Suri and all of our kids.” As for whether they’ll have another, he told Lauer he must know how it is and said “I think that’s a question for ‘the women.'”