During an interview with Vulture in 2020, Thandiwe Newton said she was "so scared" of Cruise when working on "Mission: Impossible 2." In the 2000 movie, she played Cruise's character Ethan Hunt's love interest Nyah Nordoff-Hall.
"He was a very dominant individual," the "Westworld" actress said. "He tries super hard to be a nice person. But the pressure. He takes on a lot. And I think he has this sense that only he can do everything as best as it can be done."
Newton recalled a moment when she and Cruise were "frustrated" with each other because they were not able to get a balcony scene down. Eventually, they tried to rehearse on camera and say each other's lines to try and get the scene right by Cruise's standards.
"I can't think of anything less revealing," Newton said. "It just pushed me further into a place of terror and insecurity. It was a real shame. And bless him. And I really do mean bless him, because he was trying his damnedest."
She continued: "He wasn't horrible. It was just — he was really stressed."
However, Newton recalled phoning a friend, Jonathan Demme, after the first night they shot the scene and saying it was "a nightmare."