The Mummy: Annabelle Wallis Had To Beat Tom Cruise At One Thing To Get More Scenes
Fans of Tom Cruise's big-screen work know going into each film that the actor will certainly be doing some stunt work where he risks life and limb. Proof of that comes with every one of his "Mission: Impossible" movies, including the latest chapter, where Cruise rode a motorcycle off a cliff several times for "Dead Reckoning Part One" to get the best mid-air scene possible.
His terrifying stunt work aside, one of the other things that happens in every Cruise movie is a scene featuring the iconic action star running in full stride, and in most cases, he's running solo.
That all changed when Annabelle Wallis — Cruise's co-star in the 2017 action-slash-monster movie mash "The Mummy" — aimed to mix things up and challenged the actor to let her run alongside him in one scene. Speaking with the Evening Standard in 2017, Wallis said Cruise initially wasn't warm to her idea, but she kept on pursuing it.
"I was adamant that I was going to run on screen with him because he's so particular about his running," Wallis told the publication. "He was like 'Annabelle, nobody runs on-screen with me,' and I said, 'Tom, I'm a really good runner.'"
Wallis' running scene with Cruise in The Mummy began with an on-set challenge
To prove to Tom Cruise that she was serious about her goal of running in a scene with him, Annabelle Wallis proposed a challenge on the "Mummy" set.
"I was so cheeky with him that I said, 'Come on, I'll run through the studio with you and beat you,' and, oh my God, I did," Wallis told the Evening Standard. "But then he has this turbo button and as he sees you creeping up, he does not like it and he powers on through."
The challenge impressed Cruise enough that he added scenes where he and Wallis sprint together, the actor told the Evening Standard. In the film, Cruise's and Wallis' characters, Nick Morton and Jenny Halsey, run side-by-side in a chaotic sequence that unfolds in the Natural History Museum in London before the two take to the city's streets.
"He added all those running bits because when he saw me, he said, 'Wow, you run really well,'" Wallis recalled for the Evening Standard. "I wanted to do the same, and I was like, 'I can do the same, and I want to show Tom Cruise that I can do the same.'"
Wallis told the publication she wanted to participate in an action movie because she "grew up a tomboy" and did things like riding motorcycles and playing paintball.
"I'm very physical naturally, and I knew I wanted to get into the action space because I naturally feel comfortable there," Wallis told the Evening Standard. "When I was on set, I realized that you just can, you take yourself to the next level."