The Dune actor<\/a>, who stars in new thriller Mercy, befriended Cruise while acting alongside him in the Mission: Impossible<\/a> franchise, and called upon him for assistance when she found herself in a tight scrape in the Maldives.<\/p>\n \u201cI called him once when I was in the Maldives when I had a really bad stomach,\u201d she told The Independent in a new interview. \u201cI was like, \u2018Can I get a helicopter?\u2019 It was quite a funny thing.\u201d<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Rebecca Ferguson in new thriller ‘Mercy’ (Sony Pictures Releasing International)<\/p>\n Ferguson said she became sick with a stomach bug, which she \u201cthought was a big worm\u201d, and wondered who could help fly her out of the island. \u201cMy husband [Rory St Clair Gainer] was like, \u2018Tom can get a helicopter.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI actually had gastroenteritis,\u201d she continued, adding: \u201cI\u2019m giving you too much information.\u201d<\/p>\n Swedish star Ferguson, 42, first appeared as MI6 agent Ilsa Faust in the 2015 Mission: Impossible<\/a> film Rogue Nation<\/a> (2015), and reprised the role in Fallout (2018) and Dead Reckoning (2023).<\/p>\n Her other credits include both Dune and Dune: Part Two (2021 and 24), as well as Life (2017), Doctor Sleep (2019) and Netflix\u2019s political thriller A House of Dynamite (2025).<\/p>\n Since 2023, Ferguson has starred in the Apple TV+ series Silo<\/a>, about a subterranean city with 144 floors whose residents unquestioningly lock themselves away from the outside world under the belief they will die if they leave.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Rebecca Ferguson called Tom Cruise to get her out of a scrape in the Maldives (Getty)<\/p>\n She isn\u2019t the only Mission: Impossible<\/a> cast member to have struck up a camaraderie with Cruise: in 2023, Ted Lasso actor Hannah Waddingham<\/a>, who appeared in the 2025 film The Final Reckoning, defended the star from criticism<\/a> during an appearance on ITV series James Martin\u2019s Saturday Morning<\/a>.<\/p>\n After recalling how she spent \u201cfive intense days\u201d with Cruise on the USS George HW Bush fighter carrier, Waddingham told TV chef Martin: \u201cI have to say, I have a real problem with anybody that goes at him now.\u201d<\/p>\n She continued: \u201cHe is without doubt one of the loveliest and encouraging, positive and inspiring human beings I have ever met. Isn\u2019t he gorgeous? I have no time for anyone saying anything about him.\u201d<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Ferguson and Cruise attend the London premiere of \u2018Mission: Impossible \u2013 Dead Reckoning Part One\u2019 in 2023 (Getty)<\/p>\n While Cruise remains one of the most bankable stars in Hollywood, he is also known for his outlandish off-screen behaviour and is often the subject of intense media speculation. <\/p>\n In 2005, he made headlines after jumping on a sofa during an appearance on Oprah Winfrey\u2019s chat show to declare his love for then-girlfriend Katie Holmes and, that same year, quarrelled with Matt Lauer about the practice of psychiatry, which Cruise called a \u201cpseudo-science\u201d.<\/p>\n Most of Cruise\u2019s controversy, though, surrounds his association with the Church of Scientology. In 2008, a leaked promotional video showed the actor discussing the benefits of the controversial religion, which bewildered his fans.<\/p>\n Ferguson\u2019s new film Mercy, co-starring Chris Pratt, is released on 23 January. The full interview with Ferguson and Pratt is being released tomorrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,156,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-244915","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Rebecca](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Screenshot-2026-01-21-at-13-59-45.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"Rebecca](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Rebecca-Ferguson-Tom-Cruise-2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Ferguson](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Rebecca-Ferguson-Tom-Cruise.jpg\")
<\/p>\n