Hannah Waddingham Defends 'Lovely' 'Mission: Impossible' Costar Tom Cruise: 'I've Got a Real Problem With Anyone That Goes at Him'
Hannah Waddingham is blocking out any of Tom Cruise’s haters!
The Mission: Impossible actress, who has been working with the famous actor in the eighth installment of the action series, recently gushed over Cruise, despite the bad reputation he's received over the years.
“I have to say… I’ve got a real problem with anyone that goes at him now,” Waddingham said to chef James Martin. “Having spent five days with him intensely on the [USS George H.W. Bush], no fineries, all this mucking in… he is without doubt one of the most lovely, encouraging, positive, inspiring human beings I have ever met. Isn’t he gorgeous? I have no time for anyone saying anything about him.”
Waddingham also mentioned how she has one more scene to film with Cruise before her time on the set comes to a close.
This was not the first time the Ted Lasso actress has gushed over the infamous scientologist, as on Live with Kelly and Mark in March, she raved about Cruise.
“I've met plenty of fabulous people. He is one of, if not the most inspiring, encouraging, warm, tactile, friendly to everyone, engaging… I mean seriously, he and I were literally like two 12-year-olds together,” she stated.
The pair’s film, Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part Two, will be released on May 23, 2025, after being delayed due to the SAG-AFTRA strike.
Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One came out this year and featured Cruise alongside stars Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, Hayley Atwell, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Shea Whigham, and Greg Tarzan Davis.
As OK! previously reported, Cruise and Atwell made headlines during the movie's run after fans speculated the pair may have had a romance.
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However, Atwell shut down these rumors in July when she insisted she thought of the Top Gun alum and the film’s director, Chris McQuarrie, as "sort of two uncles."
“I would be like, ‘Ooh, there’s some weird rumors, and it feels base, it feels a little dirty, it feels grubby, it’s not what I’m about,’” she spilled to The Independent. “Why are things being assumed or projected onto me about my relationship with my work colleague and boss?”
Atwell admitted she found the situation "upsetting" because “it’s involving people in my actual life, my personal life, who have to be on the receiving end of that. It becomes invasive.”
The 41-year-old, who is engaged to Ned Wolfgang Kelly, shared some advice she received from Cruise, who she claimed, "carries his fame like a loose garment.”
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“When I’ve talked to him about it, he’d be like, ‘You know exactly who you are. You know what you’re about. And that is the only thing that matters. It doesn’t matter what people think of you, if you are in integrity with yourself, if you know what your value system is,'" she dished.