Hannah Waddingham has a "real problem" with Tom Cruise haters

A lot of Hollywood people really love Tom Cruise. He’s been deemed the Savior of Cinema by everyone from Steven Spielberg to Glen Powell, after all. But a lot of regular people still really don’t like him, like anyone aware of his connections to Scientology, newly single folks who really vibe with Nicole Kidman’s joyous post-Cruise-divorce photos, and whoever started the rumor that they weren’t allowed to make direct eye contact with him on set. Still, none of these excuses are good enough for Hannah Waddingham.

“I have to say, I have a real problem with anybody that goes at [Tom Cruise] now,” the Ted Lasso actor, who stars alongside Cruise in the upcoming Mission: Impossible 8, said of her colleague on the Christmas episode of ITV’s James Martin’s Saturday Morning (via Variety). “Having met him and having spent five days intensely… He is without doubt one of the loveliest and encouraging, positive and inspiring human beings I have ever met. Isn’t he gorgeous? I have no time for anyone saying anything about him.”

While the details of Waddingham’s MI:8 role have yet to be revealed, the actor said she spent those five intense days with Cruise filming a scene on the USS George H.W. Bush fighter carrier. Based on Cruise’s past antics, this writer is assuming that the word “intense” is actually a slight understatement for some stunt that could actually be described as “extremely dangerous” or “will probably kill you.” If that is indeed the case, it’s a good thing Waddingham felt so safe with her partner.

Either way, we won’t see the boat scene or “another kind of main scene” that the two have yet to film until May 23, 2025, almost a year after the film’s originally intended release date due to delays as a result of the writer and actor strikes. Despite the long wait, Mission Impossible stans have something else to celebrate. Unlike Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One, which was booted early from Imax screens in favor of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, Mission: Impossible 8 will enjoy a three-week exclusive Imax run. If that plan gets truncated in any way, Tom Cruise may just have to earn himself a few more haters to get it back on track.