I'm seeing people criticizing the domineering party of this conversation because they disagree with his beliefs. They are probably thinking that Tom Cruise is wrong, so by asserting himself so strongly and being the leader in the conversation he has somehow diminished himself by showing a lack of concern for external validation.
If you are criticizing him and feel my summary of your reasoning is off target feel free to correct me. But until I see something that doesn't reek of "He doesn't realize what a fool he's being!" I'm left with little other explanation. I didn't see Tom completely dominating this interview but mostly that is because of tricks of body angles and Matt behaving like an emotional thermostat for Tom.
This was an interview, not a debate.
I see a lot of people criticizing Matt Lauer's body language as well and for the most part what I saw when I watched this was push pull. Lauer as the interviewer is playing a reactionary game based off of Tom's body language where Tom withdraws and Matt leans in. In my opinion this wasn't off the rails crazy, though it could have easily descended into a Cruise walk off. Lauer has his entire body crossed but he has an upright nearly 90 degree body language at one point and his leg is always dangling across the space between them (by trick of camera angles). Tom Cruise is the interviewee so he has a more natural open legged open body stance where he can lean forward and gesticulate and display power.
This exchange for the most part all happened at upright body postures with Tom Cruise leaning in and back and making lots of movement. This too most likely is a trick of the cameras, where Matt was engaged in mirroring and we only saw one side of that body language.
Matt: Clearly you've done the homework.
Matt: I'm not prescribing ritalin Tom.
Matt: So my experiences are zero?
Tom: What do you mean by that?
Tom: So you're advocating it?
Matt: You're so passionate about it.
The kid gloves and condescension from this debate and the manufactured masculinity for Lauer are fairly transparent for TRP posters that have experience with alphas. What we (masculine men) see and interpret from this video is a soft as fuck guy talking about his experiences and never providing a concrete disproof of the claims Tom Cruise made. As an information based dialogue NOTHING EVER OCCURRED IN THIS CONVERSATION. I am not smarter or more informed for having heard it. But that is rarely the point of public interviews.
Tom Cruise was casually dressed here, Matt Lauer suited up. This is an older video so for context Tom Cruise was still on the come back from his embarrassing Oprah interview. The whole point of this interview was to show himself as not retreating from public life or his religious beliefs. He was humanizing himself in his short sleeve shirt and jeans and making accusations of willful ignorance and indifference to suffering. "I just had one bad day at work and everyone turned against me! You trust those same people to inform you about the negative side affects or drugs or have your best interests at heart?"
Matt's response is the typical leftist anecdotal and indirect response that reinforces the message his audience wants to hear. "I know people for whom those drugs have an (overall positive effect) what about them? By proxy what about me for feeling better about them in a medicated state!? Don't my experiences matter?" These were two guys with two different goals from the outset of this interview. In allowing Tom Cruise to save face and redeem himself Matt Lauer got to interview him and address some of the more troubling claims made by scientology. Everyone that watches this video gets exactly what they want from it. Including TRP.
If this had been a debate I think Matt Lauer would have scored points for merely being grounded and letting Tom Cruise hang himself in enemy territory. I think Lauer was holding back honestly, towards the end of that segment he made that comment about not prescribing Ritalin. I'm fairly certain as a conversationalist Lauer could score cheap points all day, it's just in his working day he doesn't often face people he's allowed to shut down. Soft cuddly liberal personas on screen can mask cut throat workaholic perfectionist attitudes off screen. Don't let the limp wristed or white knights out there fool you into thinking they aren't just as passionate about their causes as Tom Cruise. They just like to get existential "laws" and "government" to do their strong arming so they don't have to feel like villains. Stop police brutality! Stop profiling based on race! Eliminate the death penalty! KILL ISIS!
Tom Cruise represents incestuous off limit Hollywood and Matt Lauer represents East Coast Liberal Media. This was an internal conflict that has arisen from the blanket Tolerance promoted by the left and the interview was the first real head to head confrontation these groups have ever had. This interview might as well have been Big Pharma vs Lord Xenu.
TLDR: Sanity =/= Alpha. As much as the more intelligent and left leaning posters here might wish it to be the case that irrational confidence isn't the greater part of alpha, it is.
Cruise exudes masculinity and casual authority by being dressed down in the company of a formally attired man. Lauer doesn't care because he has years of interview experience and multiple cameras to make what was a one sided interview seem like an ideological clash.