They’ve been pals since Mission: Impossible III.
Tom Cruise and Simon Pegg attend the Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One premiere in South Korea. (Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures)
Simon Pegg and Tom Cruise were spotted orchestrating a Glastonbury Festival singalong while they awaited Pyramid Stage headline act Coldplay on Saturday night.
Looming over the crowds on a VIP viewing platform, the two friends and Mission: Impossible co-stars conducted a rendition of Oasis anthem ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’ with waving arms as the jubilant crowd roared out the lyrics. They were joined for the gig by filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie and The X Files icon Gillian Anderson.
Currently in production on the eighth Mission: Impossible blockbuster, which is due out in cinemas May 2025, Pegg and Cruise first began hanging out with each other during the making of 2006’s Mission: Impossible III, in which the former made his franchise debut as Benji Dunn.
But with Cruise rarely giving longform interviews, what has Pegg said about their friendship?
Mega-fame awareness
During his episode of BBC radio programme Desert Island Discs last year, the Hot Fuzz star claimed they will often “joke about” Cruise’s almost supernatural level of fame.
“I mean, I always make fun of him for it, you know, about the things that he can access,” Pegg explained to presenter Lauren Laverne.
“We were filming in South Africa recently on this mountain and then he decided he wanted to swim with sharks. He flew us in a helicopter to this seaside part and we dived with sharks. At the end of the day we said, ‘That was a real Tom Cruise kind of day.’ He kind of appreciates the ridiculousness of it sometimes.”
The two buddies ready to watch Coldplay perform at Glastonbury Festival. (Samir Hussein/WireImage)
Keeping it simple
Pegg, who broke big with his Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy alongside Nick Frost and director Edgar Wright, also went on to reveal that his relationship with the megastar is “just very simple and amiable”.
“I mean, he loves [the fame] and he really relishes it, it’s all he knows. It energises him and spurs him on. I don’t think I would appreciate that particularly. I’d find it very stressful and overwhelming and it would make me want to retreat. I’m happy where I am.”
Pranksters
While recalling the shooting of a car sequence for Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation in Casablanca, Pegg told talkshow host Graham Norton how Cruise’s sense of humour would manifest itself.
“I realised that Tom Cruise had been turning my seat heater on when I wasn’t looking,” he shared. “He kept doing it the whole time and he kept saying, ‘Can Simon get some electrolytes?’ and he was hydrating me like I was seven, he was keeping me alive while he was torturing me.”
Keen to give the Ethan Hunt actor a taste of his own medicine, though, Pegg returned the favour while Cruise was visiting the men’s room. “I got a slither of black tape and I put it over the lights on his seat heater and turned it on, so he couldn’t see that it was on. When he realised he gave me props,” he smiled.
Hugging it out in Australia. (Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images)
Appreciation of humour and staying respectful
“He likes me because I make him laugh,” Pegg suggested to The Daily Mail in 2018. “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. I’ve never seen him just be a p****. If he’s in a darker mood, there’s usually a reason for it.”
Further to this authoritative notion, the star also shared with Virgin Radio UK that Cruise’s super-professionalism means “you can’t help but fall into step” with what he’s doing on set. “Because if you didn’t, you just look like a waster. You don’t want to look like that in front of TC, that’d be embarrassing,” he added.
As for the elephant in the room, Cruise’s belief in Scientology, Pegg doesn’t even broach the subject with his friend – “I feel that would be me abusing my privileged access that I get to him, you know what I mean?” he said.
