Tom Cruise 'literally risks his life' for movie roles
Tom Cruise "literally risks his life for the audience" by taking part in death-defying stunts on set, according to Simon Pegg.
The British actor has worked with Cruise on his 'Mission: Impossible' film series and watched him take part in a number of terrifying scenes over the years - including climbing Dubai’s Burj Khalifa tower for 2011's 'Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol' and driving a motorcycle off a cliff for 2023’s 'Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One' - and Pegg has revealed he regularly tells his pal he is "nuts".
Pegg told PEOPLE: "[Cruise] literally will risk his life for the audience ... I've said: ‘You're absolutely nuts' many times to him. But he just cares that much about it ... I've been there for a lot of them [the stunts]."
The 'Shaun of the Dead' star added of the Dubai skyscraper scene: "[I was] just leaning out of the window and seeing Tom sort of hanging there [on the outside of the building], smiling, this big s***-eating grin on his face, like: ‘I'm having the best time'."
He added of the motorcycle scene in 'Dead Reckoning Part One' :"[We] were all up there together [to watch] ...
"It was nail-biting, because we'd literally see [Cruise] just disappear, and then we'd have to wait to hear 'good canopy' [the phrase that meant Cruise's parachute had opened safely] on the radio. And so it was a kind of breath-hold moment."
PEOPLE magazine's 'Mission: Impossible' issue, Cruise, 62, revealed he always eats a “massive breakfast” before doing any daredevil stunts - confessing he'll eat "almost a dozen" eggs with bacon and sausages and down several cups of coffee before the cameras start rolling.
He said: "I actually eat a massive breakfast. The amount of energy it takes - I train so hard for that wing-walking.
"I’ll eat, like, sausage and almost a dozen eggs and bacon and toast and coffee and fluids.
"Oh, I’m eating! Picture: It’s cold up there. We’re at high altitude. My body is burning a lot."
In the eighth instalment of the action movie series, 'Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning' - which is released in May - the 'Top Gun' icon experienced what it was like to spin inside a washing machine as the crew built a tank to shoot a submarine interior that tilted and spun 360 degrees.
Cruise - who was wearing a SCUBA mask - breathed in his own carbon dioxide but he did not need to worry as the pilot had trained for carbon dioxide build-up for when he earned his wings in 1994.
The Oscar-nominated actor explained: “You’re not going to feel as connected with the character if I went with a regular mask and a thing in my mouth to breathe.
“Luckily when you’re flying jets you train for hypoxia and for carbon dioxide build-up. You start to be able to perceive your body and how it’s reacting so that I knew when to stop."
