Hayley Atwell has been a working actor since 2005, but many people really didn’t become aware of her talents until she landed the role of Peggy Carter in Captain America: The First Avenger, which joined the Marvel movies in order way back in 2011. She was able to turn that star-making role into numerous parts in other movies and TV shows, including co-starring with Tom Cruise as the newest addition to his long-running Mission Impossible franchise for 2023’s Dead Reckoning. Atwell returns for its 2025 movie schedule sequel, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (which could be the last film), and spoke about some great advice she’s gotten from Cruise.
What Hollywood Schmoozing Advice Did Tom Cruise Give Hayley Atwell?
As noted, Hayley Atwell has been around for quite some time, so I’d imagine that she’s had her fair share of moments when she’s been in the room with a lot of impressive stars and others she might admire, including Tom Cruise himself. While speaking on the Reign with Josh Smith podcast recently, the host asked about advice that she’s gotten from the Interview with the Vampire star, and said:
So, social anxiety tends to be something that people talk about a lot at the moment, right? And how a lot of people do have social anxiety at some point. It manifests in different ways, but the pep talk he gave me helps that, which is if you walk into a room and you feel the anxieties coming, and it makes me want to retreat into myself. I start to overthink, and go, ‘Do I look weird? Do I seem awkward?’ We go into ourselves, and he said try doing the opposite.
First of all, I really love it when people who seem to have it all together like Atwell talk about having their own anxiety and detail how they deal with their difficult, very human moments. She continued, adding that Cruise suggested she take an intriguing path for battling anxiety:
Look out, look around the room, and go, ‘Where is it? Where is the thing that I have attached on to my insecurity?’ Where does it live outside of me and where do I feel like the source of it might be coming from? If I look at it for long enough, the anxiety then can have a name, it can have a label. It can also be more contained instead of a free-floating one where I’m just in a total struggle internally with my own anxiety. And, I try to do that more now.
The Heartstopper talent has spoken previously about having pinch-me moments when working with Cruise, and has also revealed other advice he’s given her about things like being “competent” instead of “safe” when she works and dealing with “grubby” rumors about her personal life. However, this “free-floating” anxiety advice is something that pretty much anyone can use on a regular basis. Atwell also noted:
If I’m scared of something and I keep looking at it for long enough, it tends not to sort of be the monster under the bed anymore, and then I actually have an opportunity to do something about it.
Many of us never have and never will have the chance to have any kind of deep conversation with Tom Cruise, but it’s really good to know that he has solid advice for co-stars like Hayley Atwell. Now all I need is to get myself invited to a fancy Hollywood party to see how well his tactics work…
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