Simon Pegg Opens Up About Tom Cruise Friendship: "He Likes Me Because I Make Him Laugh"
This month marks four years since Mission: Impossible – Fallout hit theatres, and fans have been eager to see the next team-up between Tom Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie. The seventh installment, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, it's not scheduled to be released until July 2023, but the first trailer for the movie was released last month and promises a whole lot of excitement. In addition to Cruise, many franchise favorites will be returning for Dead Reckoning, including Simon Pegg, who made his debut as Benji Dunn in Mission: Impossible III back in 2006. During a recent chat with The Times, Pegg talked about working with Cruise.
"If something goes wrong and it's his fault, he'll flatly deny it," Pegg said of Cruise. "And then if someone corrects him, instead of saying sorry, he'll just say, 'Yeah,' and wink at me." Pegg added, "I admitted f---ing up once, and he said-with a wry smile, I hasten to add, 'Simon, don't do that.' He maintains his authority by never being to blame for anything."
"He likes me because I make him laugh," Pegg explained. "I'll pull him up on stuff and I can be frank with him. But he's still Tom Cruise. When you're on set, he's the boss." He continued, "When his ankle was hurting and he was running on it a lot, he was quieter and a little bit more spiky, but normally we're laughing a lot ... "I'd be so stressed out, but he's very okay with it. He understands that's the price for the level of movie star he is. He's perhaps the only movie star left."
"People have these opinions about him, which are based entirely on gossip, and he doesn't really do anything to combat that," Pegg explained. "When I hear people speculating about his weird religion and making assumptions about who he is as a person, I say, 'You know he risks his life for his audience?'"
Earlier this year, it was reported that Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two will be the "culmination" of Cruise's role as Ethan Hunt. Cruise first played the role in 1996 in the film directed by Brian De Palma. John Woo, J.J. Abrams, and Brad Bird went on to direct the sequels until McQuarrie stepped in for Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation and Mission Impossible – Fallout. McQuarrie is also helming the next two films.
The release dates for Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One and Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part Two are July 14, 2023, and June 28, 2024, respectively.
