Katie Holmes makes Tom Cruise take dance classes with her.

The 49-year-old actor - who has five-year-old daughter Suri with the actress - says his spouse is responsible for him agreeing to star in forthcoming movie musical 'Rock of Ages' because she is always trying to instil a love of the performing arts in her family.

He said: "You're just as surprised as I am [that I'm in the movie]. Kate kept saying, 'You've got to make a musical.' The dancing of ['Tropic Thunder' character] Les Grossman is inspired because Kate is a dancer, she sings, and she would take us to dance classes.

"She would say, 'I've got this dance class for the family, come on we've got to do it, we've got hip-hop class, we've got to do it.' "

Tom plays 80s rocker Stacee Jaxx in the movie - which also stars Alex Baldwin, Catherine Zeta Jones, Mary J. Blige and Julianne Hough - and though the actor studied the musicians of the period, he insists his character is not based on anyone in particular.

He told MTV News: "I just kind of studied the whole time period and read a lot of books."