Tom Cruise did musical for wife Katie

Los Angeles - Tom Cruise signed up to Rock of Ages because his wife Katie Holmes told him to.

The Mission: Impossible actor plays the part of rocker Stacee Jaxx in the forthcoming musical - also starring Russell Brand, Alec Baldwin and Mary J Blige - and he admits it was because of his partner he took the role after the pair started attending dancing classes.

He said: "I had started dancing because I was inspired by my wife. She kept saying, 'You've got to do a musical some time.'

"Katie is a dancer, so she would say, 'Let's go to dance class,' and she would take us."

'Enormously entertaining'

He is also particularly excited to be working with director Adam Shankman after the success of his musical movie Hairspray, a film his five-year-old daughter Suri is a massive fan of.

He added to 24 Frames: "What he accomplished with Hairspray was amazing. My daughter has seen it 15 times and our whole family has watched it over and over and it's just enormously entertaining.

"To be able to hold that tone throughout is really something."

Rock of Ages will be in cinemas in June 2012.