In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, The Mummy star Annabelle Wallis reveals that a conversation with Tom Cruise led to her learning that no one is allowed to run on screen with him.
Cruise's habit of running in movies has become something of a, well, running joke online, and it took a lot of convincing to get him to change his rule about being alone when he breaks into a sprint.
"He’s on a different level, and, you know, I ticked a box. I got to run on-screen with him, but he told me no at first. He said, 'Nobody runs on-screen [with me],' and I said, 'But I’m a really good runner.'"
This obviously leaves us with a lot of questions. Could it be that Cruise simply has a ridiculously high criteria because he runs better than anyone? It certainly sounds that way based on what Wallis said next about this exchange.
"So, I would time my treadmill so that he’d walk in and see me run," she continued. "And then he added all these running scenes. So, that was it. It was, like, better than an Oscar. I was so happy! (Laughs.) I was so happy that I got to run on-screen with Tom Cruise. But I don’t think it ever goes away and I hope it never does."
Despite Cruise breaking this rule of his, it didn't make much of a difference to The Mummy because the movie ended up being a critical and commercial flop, and was part of the reason Universal Pictures scrapped plans for "Dark Universe" of interconnected monster movies.
On the plus side, it did feature lots of running!