'Top Gun: Maverick' star shares lesson he learned from Tom Cruise
‘Top Gun: Maverick’ star Jay Ellis tells Fox New Digital if a sequel is coming, and reveals that Tom Cruise reminded the cast ‘daily’ they were ‘making something special.’
Tom Cruise's "Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One" co-stars are sharing what it's really like working alongside the film icon.
Simon Pegg, who first met Cruise while filming "Mission: Impossible III" in 2006, revealed the actor is truly one of a kind.
"Of all the mist of stuff that's around him, in the center of that mist is a generous, sweet guy who looks after everybody," Pegg told E! News. "He leads from the top down. And he's kind of inspiring to be around. There's no one else like him, he's the last movie star of the old kind."
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Pegg shared that Cruise's caring nature has stayed consistent since they first met nearly 20 years ago.
!["Mission: Impossible" cast](https://a57.foxnews.1eye.us/static.foxnews.1eye.us/foxnews.1eye.us/content/uploads/2023/06/1200/675/e4666ad4-cruise.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
From left: Hayley Atwell, Tom Cruise, Christopher McQuarrie, Simon Pegg and Rebecca Ferguson pose at the U.K. premiere of "Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One." (Dave Benett)
"When I first met him, it was my first time to Hollywood," he told the outlet. "He came to set the first day we met, he immediately made me feel very welcome, very at home, was incredibly generous."
Pegg said he gets to see the side of the "Top Gun" star that "everyone else wants to see."
![Simon Pegg](https://a57.foxnews.1eye.us/static.foxnews.1eye.us/foxnews.1eye.us/content/uploads/2023/06/1200/675/GettyImages-1500030521.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Simon Pegg praised Tom Cruise for "leading from the top down." (Massimo Insabato)
"Over the 17 years that we've been friends, I feel lucky to get to see a part of him that everyone else wants to see, which is just the guy," he said. "And he is just a guy. He's an extraordinary guy. He's a guy who feels the obligation to the audience to risk his life for them to kind of entertain them."
That willingness to risk his life is displayed in a motorcycle scene in the new film that Cruise described as "far and away the most dangerous thing we've ever attempted."
In the scene, the 60-year-old actor rides a motorcycle off a cliff and base jumps into a ravine. In a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight, Cruise said they filmed that wild scene first, admitting, "Well, we know either we will continue with the film or we're not — let's know day one! Let's know day one, what is going to happen: Do we all continue or is it a major rewrite?"
![Hayley Atwell](https://a57.foxnews.1eye.us/static.foxnews.1eye.us/foxnews.1eye.us/content/uploads/2023/06/1200/675/GettyImages-1500653538.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Hayley Atwell is new to the "Mission: Impossible" franchise. (Stuart C. Wilson)
Hayley Atwell, who is new to the "Mission: Impossible" franchise, echoed Pegg's sentiments about the actor.
"I had read with Tom before, I knew that he was very present," the actress told E! News. "He was very professional and he goes out of the way to make sure anyone around him in working capacity makes them feel very safe."
Vanessa Kirby called working with the "Top Gun: Maverick" star "equal parts inspired and terrified."
![Tom Cruise and Vanessa Kirby](https://a57.foxnews.1eye.us/static.foxnews.1eye.us/foxnews.1eye.us/content/uploads/2023/06/1200/675/GettyImages-1500711637.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Vanessa Kirby was "equal parts inspired and terrified" working alongside Tom Cruise. (Gareth Cattermole)
"I think that's the state everybody's in because it's like jumping off of a cliff with a motorcycle," Kirby said, referencing Cruise's dangerous stunt in the upcoming film. "I think it requires a real level of commitment and passion and turning up and care. It's just a beautiful way of working."
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Pom Klementieff, who also stars in the new "Mission: Impossible" installment, said the entire cast has so much trust in Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie.
![Tom Cruise and Pom Klementieff](https://a57.foxnews.1eye.us/static.foxnews.1eye.us/foxnews.1eye.us/content/uploads/2023/06/1200/675/GettyImages-1500723043.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Pom Klementieff said Tom Cruise "set the bar so high" that everyone else on the film needed to step up their game. (John Phillips)
"We have so much trust in him and [director] Christopher McQuarrie," Klementieff told the outlet. "They just set the bar so high that we also need to step up our game even more, so it makes everyone better, too."
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"Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One" is set to bow in theaters July 12, with part two slated for the summer of 2024.