‘Last true movie star’: Simon Pegg on Hollywood icon Tom Cruise and the reason Australia changed his life

Simon Pegg thought he’d only be in the Mission: Impossible world for a cameo – 14 years and five movies later, he reflects on crazy stunts and his mate, Tom Cruise.

Renowned for performing all his own death-defying stunts in the Mission: Impossible film franchise, Tom Cruise takes a similarly extreme approach to his co-stars’ birthdays, according to Simon Pegg.

While snowboarding in the French Alps, Pegg was amazed when one of Cruise’s signature coconut cakes was delivered to him on his birthday.

“He had managed to find a little bakery in a nearby village called Thonon,” he explains of Cruise.

“They didn’t believe it was his people calling – so they had to keep calling for a good five minutes – to have them make me a cake and bring it up the mountain to the chalet where I was staying.

“He’s incredibly thoughtful like that. He’s always very generous and I am always touched when the cake arrives.”

Hollywood star Tom Cruise at a screening of Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning in Japan. Picture: Getty Images

Picture: Getty Images

Picture: Getty Images for Paramount

Cruise is similarly attentive at Christmas, always sending Pegg a gingerbread house because he knows the comedian’s daughter, Matilda, loves them.

“Tom has known my daughter since she was a baby – and she’s nearly 16 now (but she will always be little Tilly to Tom) – so he sends us a big gingerbread house at Christmas,” Pegg says.

“And the coconut cake [received by all Cruise’s friends s in the festive season] is extraordinary.”

Simon Pegg and Tom Cruise in a scene from Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.

When Pegg signed on to play Benji Dunn in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, the fourth movie in the franchise, he thought it would be just “a little cameo”.

He certainly didn’t expect to still be here 14 years later for his fifth outing as Cruise’s co-star in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.

A fan of the original 1966 TV series growing up in Gloucestershire, Pegg was thrilled to join the modern team.

“I feel like I’ve achieved a lot of those things now, you know, in terms of the stuff that I enjoyed as a child,” he says after of appearing in Star Wars, Dr Who, Star Trek and Mission: Impossible.

“I think it might be time to start doing stuff I’ve enjoyed as an adult, or at least, stuff that hasn’t existed before, that might be novel.”

Picture: AFP

Joining a franchise like Mission: Impossible, which always features eye-popping feats, was always going to be a big adventure. Even more so, given Cruise’s preference for performing his own stunts, which Pegg says he can understand.

“The moment you hand over a stunt to a stunt professional to do, it becomes all about the stunt rather than the character.

“Because the stunt person is not an actor and is not as familiar with the character as you are as the actor playing that role.

“And so, you know, Tom’s ethos is that if you if the actors do the stunts, then the character can react during those stunts and the whole moment much more authentic”

Greg Tarzan Davis, Hayley Atwell, Tom Cruise, Christopher McQuarrie, Simon Pegg and Pom Klementieff of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. Picture: Getty Images

Playing a cyber specialist rather than a field agent doesn’t require Pegg to do as many stunts as Cruise but the comedian is quick to point out he’s still done his fair share of physically challenging work.

“There was gunplay in Rogue Nation. I had a big fight with a sort of German hit man and in Fallout I got hung, so there’s plenty of stuff for me to do,” he explains.

“I mean, I probably wouldn’t jump off a cliff on a motorbike or do 100 sky dives [like Cruise], but I do anything they ask me to do, I’ll do.”

Although he had already carved out a successful career creating cult comedies Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, Pegg acknowledges Mission: Impossible “certainly has opened doors to me in that it makes you very visible”.

“I got the part in Ready Player One, because Steven Spielberg had really liked Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation.”

Starring in Mission: Impossible has also taken Pegg to memorable locations around the world including Australia, where the first chapter of Final Reckoning premiered in 2023.

“Australia changed my life a little bit,” he explains.

“I went down there for the first time when I was 26 for a comedy tour when I had just come out of a relationship and was feeling a bit unsure about everything in the world.

“And suddenly, I found myself in this place, which was literally geometrically opposed to my own life and that was a really, really amazing experience that I’ll always hold dear.”

Simon Pegg, far right, says the franchise changed his life. Picture: Getty Images

He took home more than just happy memories from that experience, laughing “I got my first tattoo in Adelaide.

“It was one of those tentative early tattoos you would get, which was some sort of Chinese symbol, I think.

“I’ve gone over it since. But I did my first bungee jump in Australia too and I met some fantastic friends.

“I am always happy to come back there because it feels so familiar and homely which is amazing considering it’s on the other side of the world.”

His friendship with Cruise, who Pegg enjoyed watching on screen as a fan before working with him, has been another happy bonus.

Even though hanging out with the Oscar nominee is never simple.

Pegg recalls being in a Vienna subway with Cruise and “within 10 minutes, there were 100 people just crowding around us.

“And when we were shooting in Morocco, I remember driving back to Unit base in the car with Tom and the road being flanked with just hundreds and hundreds of people shouting, ‘Tom Cruise!’”

Which is why getting together always “has to be stage managed a little bit”.

“Tom’s security will make sure everything is cool. He is obviously aware of the effect he has and that it can be disruptive to other people. And he has no desire to cause traffic jams or that kind of stuff.

Tom Cruise (second from left) and Simon Pegg far right. Picture: Samir Hussein/WireImage

“So, if we have dinner, it’ll either be around Tom’s place, or we’ll go somewhere where he can come in and out quietly without causing too much fuss.”

Even now that he knows the man behind the megastar, Pegg remains a little starstruck because Cruise is “probably the last true movie star”. “He’s worked with legends of old Hollywood and new.

“But, one-to-one, he’s a very, very sweet, generous, friendly guy. I mean, he’s Tom, he always will be Tom, and it’s always still a bit of a thrill when he walks into the room, just because of the historical mythology that surrounds him.”

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is in cinemas on May 17. Read the full interview with Simon Pegg in Stellar on Friday today, via The Daily Telegraph (NSW), Herald Sun (VIC), Courier Mail (QLD) and The Advertiser (SA). For more from Stellar and the podcast, Something To Talk About, click here.

Originally published as ‘Last true movie star’: Simon Pegg on Hollywood icon Tom Cruise and the reason Australia changed his life