19 January,2009 10:31 AM IST | | Agencies
Tom Cruise, who fails to assassinate Adolf Hitler in his new movie Valkyrie, said he grew up really wanting to kill the Nazi leader.
In the World War Two thriller based on a true story of the unsuccessful attempt by German soldiers to kill Hitler, Cruise plays Colonel Claus Von Stauffenberg who plants a briefcase bomb under a table at Hitler's military headquarters.
A heavy wooden table saves Hitler and Stauffenberg is executed with his co-conspirators.
"I always wanted to kill Hitler, I hated him," the Hollywood star of such major blockbusters as "Top Gun" and "Mission Impossible," told the press during a visit to Seoul to promote his latest film.
"As a child studying history and looking at documents, I wondered, why didn't someone stand up and try to stop it? When I read the script, it was entertaining and informative to know what the challenges were and what it was like to be in the environment."
Stauffenberg's legacy helped ease the burden of guilt about World War Two and the Holocaust Germans still endure.
