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.
