- Hannah Waddingham had an intense but lovely first meeting with Tom Cruise on "Mission: Impossible 8."
- She told Business Insider they were stuck on a fighter carrier together for five days during filming.
Hannah Waddingham got up close and personal with Tom Cruise when they first met — literally.
On the red carpet for the premiere of "The Fall Guy" at the SXSW Film & TV Festival on Tuesday, Waddingham spoke to Business Insider about her time filming the eighth installment of the "Mission: Impossible" franchise and what Cruise was really like.
"We were stuck on the George H. W. Bush fighter carrier for five days," Waddingham told BI, adding that they were "literally" face to face with each other for all that time. "That was my first meeting with him."
Despite the confined quarters, Waddingham said the experience was "quite intense and very lovely." The two even bonded enough for her to land a spot on Cruise's famous holiday coconut cake list. (Cruise famously sends an elite group of people, including his friends and many famous costars, a decadent white chocolate coconut cake from Doan's Bakery in California every year.)
"I've had the coconut cake," Waddingham gleefully confirmed.
The "Ted Lasso" star has been on an action kick recently. Her casting in an undisclosed role in the untitled eighth film in the "Mission: Impossible" film series was revealed by director Christopher McQuarrie on Instagram in March 2023.
On top of making her debut in the long-running franchise, she's also in "The Fall Guy." The comedy, directed by former stuntman and acclaimed action director David Leitch, is loosely based on the 1980s TV show of the same name and centers on washed-up stunt performer Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling), who's recruited by Waddingham's character, Diet Coke-obsessed producer Gail Meyer, to retrieve missing action star Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) in order to save his ex-girlfriend Jody's (Emily Blunt) movie.
The action-heavy film required a lot of physical work from everyone, including Waddingham. On the red carpet, she added that she pulled off the most difficult stunt of her career on "The Fall Guy," — and it involved getting cozy with her costars Gosling and Taylor-Johnson.
"It was a little bit of myself and Ryan and Aaron in a confined space for two or three days… doing things," Waddingham teased.
"Which sounds fruity but isn't," she laughed.
"The Fall Guy" hits theaters on May 3.