Thandie Newton revealed that she had been a lot scared of Tom Cruise while filming Mission: Impossible 2. In the film, released in 2000 under the direction of John Woo, the actress joined Cruise's Ethan Hunt as Nyah Nordoff-Hall, a professional thief recruited to help on a mission.
The star of Westworld she was not really satisfied with her colleague's ways, so much so that shooting some scenes for her was a nightmare. Here are her words in a recent interview, in response to the question of why she didn't appear in any other chapter of Mission Impossible:
I've never been asked. I was so scared of Tom. He is a very dominant individual. He tries hard to be a good person, but he takes a lot of pressure. It seems to me as if he has the feeling that only he can do everything well.
I remember this scene we were shooting at night, there were fireworks and the two of us were on the balcony. It wasn't a very well written scene. I get mad at him, we're both frustrated, but it wasn't going well. John Woo [the director] wasn't there, he was downstairs watching the scene on the monitor. Before starting the film, he had made the decision not to speak English. A comfortable choice for him, but not for us.
Returning to the scene, Tom wasn't happy with what I was doing, because my lines sucked. He starts getting nervous and looking for ways to get out, to which he tells me: “Let me do it to me. We rehearse in front of the camera.“So let's try, they take us back. “I will do you and you will do me”. We shot the whole scene with me saying his lines and he doing mine. It was something that did nothing but increase my insecurity, shame and terror. But he was trying to do his best.
Then one day Tom called me. I thought you might want to apologize, but instead he told me we were going to shoot the scene again next week. That time I told him everything. I realized what she wanted: an alpha woman. And I did the best I could.
Be that as it may, he is not a horrible person. He was just really stressed out. And to think that it was his wife Nicole Kidman who suggested me for the role.
Article Mission Impossible 2, Thandie Newton has no good memories: "Tom Cruise scared me" From We of the 80-90s.
