Featured Image Credit: Mike Coppola/WireImage
Topics: Tom Cruise, Film and TV
Joe Yates
Warning: This article contains spoilers of Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One
Tom Cruise has been labelled a 'man-child' by one of his former co-stars, who has lifted the lid on what it was really like working with him on set.
Rebecca Ferguson, who starred alongside the Hollywood icon in three Mission: Impossible movies, has revealed how filming alongside him was never smooth sailing - opening up about the unpredictable and sometimes chaotic process that came with the 63-year-old action star.
The 41-year-old joined the franchise back in 2015 as the fan-favourite Ilsa Faust for Rogue Nation, and went on to shoot alongside Cruise for the next two consecutive pictures.
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But with her time on the production having now concluded, she explained that working on those massive blockbuster sets could feel like stepping into the unknown every single day.
“You don’t have scripts and have no idea where it’s going to go,” she told The Times. "You train for a stunt scene for months and all of a sudden they cut it."
The Swedish actor revealed that the unpredictable nature of production often left cast and crew scrambling to keep up - and Cruise’s relentless energy added another layer of madness to the mix.
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"[Cruise is] a man-child in a good way," Ferguson said. "I often joke that there’s someone with a tranquilliser gun and a net looking for him."
She recalled one particularly chaotic shoot, saying: "It’s frustrating because you’re ready to shoot and the sun’s going down. Tom goes, 'what are we waiting for?’ and I go, ‘you!’, and he laughs and goes, ‘f**k, I’m sorry'."
Despite the rollercoaster conditions, Ferguson has never denied Cruise’s magnetism on set - describing how his enthusiasm often kept spirits high, even when things were falling apart around them.
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Her run as Ilsa Faust came to a dramatic end in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One, a decision Ferguson actually backed.
"There was nothing more to do with Ilsa," she explained. "It felt like the right moment to move on."
Since then, Ferguson’s sights have been set firmly on new horizons - teaming up with Steven Knight for the upcoming film The Immortal Man - only to later discover he’s also writing the next James Bond instalment.
"I would have been pushing to play the baddie," she admitted. "We haven’t had a female Bond villain."
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She’s even floated the idea with Denis Villeneuve, who’s reportedly lined up to direct the spy saga’s next chapter.
"I already said that to Denis - ‘female Bond villain, b***h’,” she laughed.