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Emily Blunt Says Tom Cruise Told Her to ‘Stop Being Such a P—y’ When She Cried Over ‘Edge of Tomorrow’ Suits: ‘I Did Laugh’

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Emily Blunt revealed on the “SmartLess” podcast that she started crying after trying on her 85-pound “ Edge of Tomorrow ” suit for the first time, which led co-star Tom Cruise to tell her: “Come on, stop being such a pussy, ok?” It was all in good fun, however, as Blunt added, “I did laugh, and then we got through it.”

Cruise and Blunt headlined the Doug Liman-directed 2014 action movie, in which they play soldiers in the future fighting against an alien race. Cruise’s character finds himself stuck in a time loop and forced to relive the climactic day in which the aliens win, unless he can reverse the outcome.

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Blunt said Cruise “stared at her,” adding, “I was like, ‘Tom, I’m not sure how I’m going to get through this shoot,’ and just started to cry. I said, ‘I’m feeling a bit panicky about the whole shoot.’ He just stared at me for a long time, not knowing what to do, and he goes, ‘Come on, stop being such a pussy, ok?’”

“I did laugh, and then we got through it, but the training was intense,” Blunt concluded.

“Edge of Tomorrow,” based on the 2004 Japanese novel “All You Need Is Kill” by Hiroshi Sakurazaka, grossed $370 million at the worldwide box office. Liman, Cruise and Blunt have long discussed wanting to return for a sequel, but the project has never officially gotten off the ground at Warner Bros.

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Emily Blunt says Tom Cruise once told her to ‘stop being such a p—’ on set

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Emily Blunt is pulling back the curtain on what it was like to work with Tom Cruise on “Edge of Tomorrow.”

In a new episode of the “SmartLess” podcast that premiered Dec. 5 on Wondery and will be available Monday on other streaming platforms, Blunt recalled Cruise telling her to “stop being such a p—” behind the scenes of their 2014 action film .

According to Entertainment Weekly , the “Devil Wears Prada” and “A Quiet Place” actor recounted her experience working on “Edge of Tomorrow” to “SmartLess” co-hosts Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett. She said that the sci-fi movie’s futuristic, mechanical costumes weighed about 85 pounds, which pushed her to her breaking point one day on set.

Review: ‘Edge of Tomorrow,’ Tom Cruise run loops around competition

Just when you were ready to give up on the summer season and its cookie-cutter, been-there blockbusters, “Edge of Tomorrow” saves the day.

June 5, 2014

“It was so heavy,” she said, according to Entertainment Weekly.

“The first time I put it on I just started to cry in front of Tom, and he didn’t know what to do. He just stared at me. I was like, ‘Tom, I’m not sure how I’m going to get through this shoot,’ and just started to cry. I said, ‘I’m just feeling a bit panicky about the whole shoot.’ He just stared at me for a long time, not knowing what to do, and he goes, ‘Come on, stop being such a p—, OK?’”

Blunt said she laughed off the remark and was able to make it through the shoot with Cruise. Though she admitted the “training was intense” and that it “would’ve been great” if the effects department had just tricked out the costumes using CGI.

“We wanted to do it practically and in a tactile way,” she said. “When you hear the word ‘tactile,’ you think that sounds nice and cozy. There was nothing cozy about wearing these suits.”

A representative for Cruise did not immediately respond Sunday to The Times’ request for comment.

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Edge of tomorrow 2: will it happen everything we know.

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The latest edge of tomorrow 2 news, edge of tomorrow 2 hasn't been confirmed, edge of tomorrow 2 cast, edge of tomorrow 2 story details.

• Edge Of Tomorrow 2: Further News & Info
• The Edge of Tomorrow 2 sequel is still in development, with Emily Blunt expressing her eagerness to continue the franchise alongside Tom Cruise despite uncertainty about its production.
• While the sequel hasn't been officially confirmed, Blunt's comments suggest that a script for Edge of Tomorrow 2 has been seen, but it may not be a new one. Tom Cruise's involvement in the Mission: Impossible franchise has potentially delayed progress.

It's been a decade since the first movie, but conversations around Edge Of Tomorrow 2 have been steadily ongoing, and everything that's known so far about Tom Cruise's sci-fi sequel sounds promising. The original Edge Of Tomorrow , AKA Live Die Repeat, followed Major William Cage (Tom Cruise) who is forced to take part in a landing operation against an invading alien force . Cage — having no combat experience — is swiftly killed but finds himself resurrected via a time loop. Cage uses this ability to improve his combat skills and teams with Emily Blunt’s war hero Rita to find a way to stop the invasion.

While Edge Of Tomorrow contained all the thrills and set pieces of a blockbuster, it was the witty script and chemistry between Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt that made it a cult hit that should have launched a franchise . While the film was something of a financial disappointment, the demand for a follow-up hasn't waned . Edge of Tomorrow was a solid hit on Blu-ray and DVD, and it was confirmed in 2016 Edge Of Tomorrow 2 was in development. However, not much has been heard about the sequel since, and each passing year seems to make the possibility of a sequel more and more remote.

Edge of Tomorrow is available to stream on Max.

15 Best Movies Like Edge Of Tomorrow (Live Die Repeat)

Those looking for movies like Edge of Tomorrow (a.k.a. Live Die Repeat) should check out these sci-fi and action films if they want the best choices.

Director Doug Liman Offers An Update

Edge of tomorrow.

Based on Hiroshi Sakurazaka's novel All You Need is Kill, Edge of Tomorrow follows Major William Cage (Tom Cruise), who finds himself drafted into humanity's ongoing war against a seemingly unstoppable race of hostile aliens called Mimics. Cage is killed in combat, but wakes in a time loop, reliving the same battle day after day. Gradually, he realizes that if he teams up with the decorated war hero Sergeant Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), he can exploit the time loop to defeat the Mimic army and save the human race. 

Liman himself was cagey about the sequel and didn't have much to offer in terms of updates on its development.

Nearly a year after original star Emily Blunt was less-than-optimistic about the sequel, director Doug Liman has given an enticing update on Edge of Tomorrow 2 . While the film is still not officially confirmed, Liman mentioned that Warner Bros. is very persistent about pursuing a sequel and " constantly bringing up " Edge of Tomorrow 2 . Despite being flattered by the persistence of Warner Bros., Liman himself was cagey about the sequel and didn't have much to offer in terms of updates on its development.

Read Liman's full comments below:

I do think there's probably no better compliment to a movie than people wanting for there to be a sequel. Road House - there's call for a sequel. Edge of Tomorrow, there's no better compliment than Warner Bros. constantly bringing up, “Will you go and make another one of these?”

Edge Of Tomorrow 2's Key Challenge Explained By Original Director

Doug Liman shares a new status update on Edge of Tomorrow 2, explaining the big challenge currently facing the anticipated Tom Cruise sequel.

Development Has Taken Place

While Edge of Tomorrow 2 updates in 2016 reported that the sequel was in development, Edge of Tomorrow 2 hasn't officially been confirmed . In May 2021, star Emily Blunt took to the Howard Stern Show to mention how a sequel is simply too expensive to be made.

More recently in June 2023, Blunt seemed somewhat more optimistic about the project's possibilities and reiterated her desire to make a sequel. However, she also questioned how they could do a new approach to the premise suggesting that there is not yet a script for Edge of Tomorrow 2 .

Edge of Tomorrow is available for purchase or rental on Apple TV, Amazon Prime, Google Play, and YouTube.

Will Blunt & Cruise Return?

Though they would presumably be the sequel's stars, Emily Blunt and Tom Cruise aren't signed on for Edge of Tomorrow 2 yet . However, director Doug Liman has teased another character that would play a major role in the sequel, saying (via DigitalSpy ), "There's a third character in the sequel that's going to, for sure, steal the movie."

Actors from the first movie, like Brendan Gleeson and Noah Taylor, could presumably come back, but nothing is confirmed thus far . Sadly, actor Bill Paxton passed away in 2017, meaning his gruff Sergeant Farell will likely be left out of the sequel or recast.

A Revolutionary Sequel Is Promised

The original Edge Of Tomorrow ended on a happy note, with Cage defeating the Omega that controlled the aliens and being time-looped back to before the landing operation. The logic of this ending is somewhat murky, which is something co-writer Christopher McQuarrie promises will be addressed in the sequel. Doug Liman claims to have an idea for Edge Of Tomorrow 2 that will ‘ revolutionize ’ how sequels are made , and it will also be a prequel that acts as a sequel .

There's little news on the Edge Of Tomorrow 2 plot, but it will presumably pick up from the original's ending. In addition to Cage and Rita, Liman has teased that a new third character will be involved and will steal the movie. It's unknown who exactly this character will be, who will be cast in the role, and what impact they will have on the story, but Liman has also mentioned that the sequel will be less action-heavy than its predecessor , meaning this character could be something entirely different.

20 Crazy Details Behind The Making Of Edge Of Tomorrow

Although Edge of Tomorrow had one of the most unique and interesting stories ever, the story behind the movie is almost as intriguing.

• Edge of Tomorrow 2

Edge of Tomorrow 2 is the follow-up film to Doug Liman's Edge of Tomorrow, starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt. Talks of a sequel quickly started after the first was released in 2014, but Edge of Tomorrow 2 found itself stuck in development hell for years with various scripts being written.

Edge Of Tomorrow 2: Further News & Info

• Edge of Tomorrow 2 Is Now Closer Than Ever Thanks To Tom Cruise's New Deal
• Edge of Tomorrow 2 Update: Emily Blunt Has Read Script, Casts Doubt On Sequel
• "As Ambitious As The First": Why Edge of Tomorrow 2 Is Taking So Long Explained By Emily Blunt
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Emily Blunt says Tom Cruise told her to 'stop being such a p---y' while filming Edge of Tomorrow

"I did laugh and we got through it but the training was intense," the actress said.

Jessica is a staff writer at Entertainment Weekly, where she covers TV, movies, and pop culture. Her work has appeared in Bustle, NYLON, Cosmopolitan, InStyle, and more. She lives in California with her dog.

Emily Blunt is opening up about the grueling production of the 2014 sci-fi action film Edge of Tomorrow and a very direct comment offered to her by costar Tom Cruise .

The actress recalled the taxing stunts and costumes required of her while on Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett's Wondery podcast SmartLess , set to premiere to a wider audience on Monday, revealing that Cruise told her to "stop being such a p---y" after she expressed some concerns about a shoot.

The two played soldiers fighting a war against aliens in the film that also starred Bill Paxton and Brendan Gleeson, which required the wear of enormous robotic suits. The costume "would've been great if we had CGI'd them, but we wanted to do it practically and in a tactile way," Blunt said. "When you hear the word 'tactile,' you think that sounds nice and cozy. There was nothing cozy about wearing these suits."

Blunt's suit weighed about 85 pounds. "It was so heavy," she said. "The first time I put it on I just started to cry in front of Tom and he didn't know what to do. He just stared at me. I was like, 'Tom, I'm not sure how I'm going to get through this shoot,' and just started to cry. I said, 'I'm just feeling a bit panicky about the whole shoot.' He just stared at me for a long time, not knowing what to do, and he goes, 'Come on, stop being such a p---y, okay?'"

Blunt laughed off the comment and the two were able to get through the shoot, she said, but "the training was intense." The actress said she injured herself during a stunt. "I did this aerial stunt on wires and I was supposed to land on my shoulder, and I landed on my face," she recalled.

A sequel to the film was announced in 2019 with Blunt and Cruise reported to reprise their roles, but Blunt told EW last year that she wasn't quite sure where it stood — but said she did read a script for it at some point. "That was an amazing script, but I just don't know what the future holds for it," she said. "I did read a script that was in really great shape, but it's just a matter of if that can even happen now. I don't have the straight answer on that one."

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Emily Blunt interview: 'Tom Cruise is the reason I bounced back after pregnancy'

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“I was the most fearful child; I was scared of everything. I was scared of bees, I was scared of freshly cut grass on my feet, I was scared of balloons and I was scared of Father Christmas,” admits Emily Blunt, who also had a childhood stutter. “I was talking to my mother about it the other day, and now here I am jumping off buildings and doing crazy stunts and this movie Sicario – it’s pretty out-there and intense.

“So it’s a bit of an irony that I was this quaking child that now has become someone with a willingness to do anything.” And now she is an actress breaking the rules, and forging new ground, and this time it’s audiences that are being asked to become fearless.

Ostensibly Sicario deals with the ugliness of the drug trade across the Mexican and American border, and it’s the decision to cast 32-year-old Blunt in the lead that is the most radical component of the film.

In a film full of men, her partner is rising British star Daniel Kaluuya, her bosses are men, and so are the mysterious law enforcement agents that she is asked to help, played by Josh Brolin and Benicio del Toro. She sticks out, not just because of her gender, but because of the quiet determination she gives her character. She looks for inner strength rather than brawn to play an FBI agent, a decision that came about after she began contacting law-enforcement agents by Skype to prepare for the role.

“I spoke to three or four female FBI agents, that was the most informative part of the research, more so than reading books and watching other movies,” she says.

“I asked them, ‘how does it affect your sleep, your marriage, your children, what music do you listen to, what frightens you, what do you do to relax?’ They were so open and had such normality to them; they were kind of tough girls but they were very real and very human people. So I wanted to make sure my character Kate Macer was someone who reflected them. She is not someone who acts on her femininity and, because she carries a gun, it does not mean she has to be butch. There is a frankness to these women, there was a real loneliness, and they were quite shy.”

Timidity is not an attribute that we have grown to expect from FBI agents in cinema. Blunt’s investigation led to the discovery of rituals such as one agent who would always sleep on her sofa the night before a raid.

The rituals and preparation fascinated her, yet when asked about her own preparation to movies, she sighs: “The process, it’s so boring isn’t it?” And she doesn’t have any rituals either, “What I do changes from movie to movie.”

Playing an FBI agent was a role to challenge the notion that Blunt is simply a posh English rose, like the girl Tamsin she portrayed in her breakout movie My Summer of Love in 2004. Her character rides horses and has been suspended from boarding school. It’s about the relationship between her and a working class lass played by Natalie Press and is one of the great British coming-of-age movies.

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Blunt has a middle-class background, her father is a barrister and her mother a teacher and former actress. Her uncle is Conservative MP Crispin Blunt – although it was playing the troubled child of a New Labour spin-doctor in Stephen Poliakoff’s Gideon’s Daughter that saw her win a Golden Globe in 2007 as Best Supporting Actress in a Series or TV Film.

That same year she was also nominated for a Golden Globe, in the Best Supporting Actress for Feature Films category for her turn as Meryl Streep’s haughty and snide first assistant in The Devil Wears Prada, which also played up the British-superiority stereotype. The idea that she was British royalty was reinforced as she played Queen Victoria in Young Victoria, for which she was nominated for a best actress Golden Globe.

However there has been a career in evolution since Blunt moved to Los Angeles and married actor John Krasinski in July 2010, and they had a daughter, Hazel, in February 2014. She played in a series of romantic dramas, My Sister’s Sister, The Five-Year Engagement and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, before there was a move to more action-orientated affairs with Looper and then in 2014 opposite Tom Cruise in Edge of Tomorrow.

Despite this recent shift, when Sicario debuted in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, the general consensus soon seemed to be that enjoyment of the movie depended on whether you bought Blunt as an FBI agent: an odd reaction that highlighted the conditioning that audiences have had to cinema roles, rather than any deficiencies in Blunt’s performance, which is nuanced and beguiling. It’s when she’s off-screen that the film struggles against cliche.

The film also became the focus of the issue of women in cinema, as it was at the press conference for the film around which the furore over the stipulation that women had to wear high heels on the Cannes red carpet became an issue, with the men of the film claiming they would wear high heels to their own premiere, which they didn’t.

Blunt says that she loves wearing high heels to red carpets because it’s part of the theatre of the event; otherwise she’s always in flats chasing her toddler around. Yet she also feels that the time for talking is over. “I personally feel the media exacerbate the problem, the more we talk, the more they put a stamp on the issue. We need to create more programmes for female film-makers, that’s what we need to do, we should stop having so many ceremonies about women in film and need to start creating programs.”

She has her list of female directors she wants to work with, including Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow and the Australian director of The Babadook Jennifer Kent.

More recently it’s the idea of Blunt as an English rose that has created problems. There was something of a furore made over the fact that Blunt took American citizenship in August, a practical move for someone with an American family and who lives in America. The problem seems to be that she hasn’t hidden the fact that the decision was made out of financial necessity and that, despite the colour of her passport, she still feels British. When she quipped that watching the Republicans debate their presidential nomination she wondered what she had done by taking on citizenship, the public backlash saw her feel the need to apologise days later.

Her attempt at being American drew some comic frustration out of her British co-star Kaluuya on set. “When I’m doing an American accent in a film, I try to stay with it during the whole day and not go back and forth the whole day. On the first day I got there, Daniel was like: ‘For fuck’s sake, are you going to stay in that accent the whole time? I feel like I have to do it.’ After day three he was like: ‘I don’t want to do it anymore’. I was like: ‘Just because I’m doing it, you don’t have to do it.’”

The talk of citizenship did seem like a storm in a teacup. She avoided a potential backlash from Brits as she insisted that, despite the location of the highly anticipated forthcoming adaptation of Paula Hawkins’s psychological thriller The Girl on the Train being moved to New York, she will play Rachel, the alcoholic divorcee who fantasises about a couple she sees from the train, as British. It was part of the deal she made with director Tate Taylor. The tussle between nationalities seems to come up a lot.

“I have a lot of Brit friends in Los Angeles. It’s complicated because I have a love-hate relationship with Los Angeles, and I loathe that one industry emanates from every corner of it. Driving down the street and there are billboards about opening weekends and movies, movies, movies. I don’t like the lack of culture; I know there are some diehard LA people that argue with me about this but I grew up in London so it’s hard for me to accept that a couple of art galleries means you have culture.”

My older sister told me to steal some seeds from the garden centre once and I was caught

She copes by going away a lot. She often shoots in the United Kingdom and her family also have a home in Ojai, California, an hour and half from Los Angeles, where they spend a lot of time. It also has a lot of New Age residents, which makes her think of home. “I’m a bit of a hippie. My mum raised us all on homeopathic remedies and I went home recently and stayed the night and she put these essential-oil sticks everywhere, I love her so much, she is so sweet and these sticks will really make you sleep.”

Not that she generally needs help sleeping: “I’m a great sleeper, I have no problem sleeping.” Although she liked to stay in character and do the accent on set, she usually has no problem detaching her private life from her role. She’s not “method”. But, in Sicario, she does admit, “I was affected in a negative way and couldn’t sleep for a couple of days. It’s the fight scene where I bring a guy back to my apartment. It felt so real that I felt anxious, ‘oh this is what it would be like to be overpowered by a guy’. It was quite intense.”

The boundary between movie and reality blurred far more successfully when she introduced her literary-agent older sister Felicity to her The Devil Wears Prada co-star Stanley Tucci, and they married.

When she mentions Felicity, it’s as a conniving older sister. “My older sister, when we were growing up, would always tell me to do bad things that would get me in trouble. She told me to steal some seeds from the garden centre once and I was caught and had to take them back and apologise.” She then quips: “So illegal.”

Blunt didn’t have much of a career pause when she had her own daughter in last February and says she knows the secret. “I always say Tom Cruise is the reason I bounced back after the pregnancy,” she says. “He should be credited as the new diet pill because he asked me to do Edge of Tomorrow so I was in such good shape when I got pregnant, so after I had Hazel it was easier to bounce back.”

In addition to The Girl on the Train, on the horizon is her first out-and-out villain role. She stars in the sequel to Snow White and the Huntsman called The Huntsman, which will also feature Jessica Chastain and Charlize Theron. “It’s my first real villain role,” she gleefully states, “and it’s surprising how easy it was for evil to come to me.” Now it’s her who wants to make children scared.

‘Sicario’ is out on October 8

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Emily Blunt Recalls The Bold Words Tom Cruise Used After She Cried Due To Heavy ‘Edge Of Tomorrow’ Costume

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Armando Tinoco

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Emily Blunt is recalling her time with Tom Cruise on the set of Edge of Tomorrow in 2014 and the bold words he used after she cried over the heavy costume she had to use.

Blunt recently opened up about filming the sci-fi film and having to wear an 85-pound costume that not only caused her frustration on the set but also permanently injured her ribs and collarbone.

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Blunt explained to Cruise that she didn’t know how she was going to get through the shoot and started to cry and that’s when her costar gave her the blunt advice.

“I said, ‘I’m feeling a bit panicky about the whole shoot.’ He just stared at me for a long time, not knowing what to do, and he goes, ‘Come on, stop being such a pussy, OK?'” Blunt said.

Cruise’s words caught Blunt off guard but soon they began laughing about the situation.

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Emily Blunt, Dwayne Johnson reveal most awkward 'Jungle Cruise' kiss, dirty jokes cut by Disney

ANAHEIM, Calif. – WWE phenom, movie smackdown champ and "Jungle Cruise"  star Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson did not grasp what he was getting into by relentlessly pursuing very British "Mary Poppins Returns" star Emily Blunt to co-lead the Disney action adventure.

When the two disparate movie forces finally met at a Beverly Hills dinner in 2018, the magical sparring began immediately.

"You were more gentlemanly at first," says Blunt, eyeing a concurring Johnson just yards away from the Disneyland Jungle Cruise ride that serves as the movie's inspiration. "But the moment he sat down, I went straight for the jugular."  

The playfully (we're pretty sure) savage barbs and cutting chemistry sizzled when the 6-foot-5 Johnson filmed as Amazon riverboat captain Frank Wolff with the 5-foot-7 Blunt as scientist passenger Lily Houghton in "Jungle Cruise" (in theaters and on Disney+ via Premier Access).

'Jungle Cruise':  A gay character sparks debate and a reformed Trader Sam emerges

Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

The zingers still fly today. Even before cameras roll for a USA TODAY interview, the two broadly bicker over Blunt's blanket that is shedding on Johnson's perfect pants.

"Not sure why you're doing this now," Blunt quips to Johnson . "I'm keeping the blanket. Talk about Captain Anal."

"Really, that's how it's going to be?" Johnson retorts. "OK, be ready my friend. Here it comes."

We unleashed the duo for a final wicked voyage revisiting what it took to board their "Jungle Cruise."

'Jungle Cruise' review:  Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt are well-matched heroes on a cheesy-fun 'Jungle Cruise'

Question: Mr. Rock, as a producer on 'Jungle Cruise,' you made a personal video and sent letters from Disney execs to convince Blunt. Have you ever pursued a co-star like this?

Emily Blunt: It got stalker-ish.

Dwayne Johnson: It was only  borderline stalker-ish. I'm going to get arrested. Chris Hansen is waiting outside. 

Blunt (laughing) : The "Catch a Predator" host? Seriously? But really it was the script. That's all I needed.

Johnson : (Director) Jaume Collet-Serra flew to Brooklyn to hand-deliver the script. And I said to him, show her this video I made. I can be very charming when I want to be. So I said –

Blunt interrupts : Your video didn't do anything. It made me want to run.

Jungle Cruise revamped: Disneyland unveils ride that removes racially insensitive depictions, adds new story

Q: Ms. Blunt, did you really ghost The Rock after that personal entreaty?

Blunt: Everyone says it's ghosting (to Johnson). I'll say now, I was very touched by your lovely video. It was clearly an impassioned plea.

Johnson:  It wasn't really an impassioned plea. It was, 'I admire your work. You and I together onscreen will be phenomenal.'

Blunt: It was begging.

Johnson: I have to say this: She didn't respond, which is fine. She needed to read the script. But what you do, if you're just a human being with a shred of emotion or decency, is respond.

Q: The movie incorporates tour guide pun-filled humor made infamous on the original Jungle Cruise ride. Ms. Blunt, how did you hold back real laughter?

Blunt: It was very easy. I'm not a fan of puns.

Q; There's clearly a lot of improv in the movie. What off-the-rails scene didn't make it?

Blunt: Oh god. It made it in the movie, but the scene where I pull the sword out of him. We shot innuendo after innuendo. There's a whole movie there. We were seeing how far we could push Disney with innuendos. There's now just enough for the adults to laugh and the kids to ask why they're laughing.

Johnson: To Disney's credit, they let us push it just enough.

Blunt: They did truncate it.

Q: What was ultimately cut?

Johnson : Nearly all of it. Think of my dirty sense of humor and (multiply) that by 1,000. Then you get her sense of humor. So you can imagine what that scene looked like.

Q: There's an epic kiss that turns into a group hug with co-star Jack Whitehall (playing Lily's brother MacGregor) – and no doubt an actor playing a computer-generated screen leopard. How awkward was that?

Blunt:  It was two takes .  Jack was horrified. He said it was like watching his parents kiss at that point. It was at the end of the shoot, which made it all the more awkward. And yes, there was a leopard. He was played by a man named Ben, who had very beautiful eyes.

Johnson: It all just reminded me of those crazy times when you get really high at three in the morning. Those are the thoughts you have.

Q: And the scene where Frank gives Lily, trapped underwater, mouth-to-mouth oxygen. How was that to shoot?

Blunt: It's such a beautiful scene. But on the day, we couldn't even see each other. It was very murky in the water. So I could have been kissing anyone. It might have been one of your stunt doubles.

Johnson: It was probably my foot. So that would be my foot in your mouth.

Q: Might you two overcome your differences and get the band back together for "Jungle Cruise 2"?

Blunt : We've had really great conversations; Jaume has some really exciting ideas. We all have such an investment in this; Disney does as well. Hopefully, people want to see the journey continue.

Emily Blunt Shares Foul-Mouthed Advice Tom Cruise Gave Her During Film Shoot

Senior Reporter, HuffPost

Actor Emily Blunt recently revealed the blunt, crude advice Tom Cruise gave her while working on the 2014 sci-fi film “Edge Of Tomorrow.”

During an appearance on the “SmartLess” podcast hosted by Will Arnett , Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes , Blunt shared the challenges of working on her first action-oriented flick.

The actor said that Cruise told her “rather un-reassuringly” when they started the film that it was “ the deep end of action for” him. The “Mary Poppins Returns” star said her reaction was, “If you are saying that, like, we are in trouble.”

One stunt was particularly daunting because it required Blunt and Cruise to wear what she described as “ really enormous robotic suits” to do the scene “in a tactile way” rather than with CGI.

“And you know, when you hear the word tactile, you’re like, that sounds nice and cozy,” Blunt continued. “There was nothing cozy about wearing these suits. Like, mine was like 85 pounds. It was so heavy.”

Blunt said the first time she put on the suit she started to cry in front of her co-star. She confessed she wasn’t sure if she would be able to get through the shoot and admitted to feeling “a bit panicky.”

Blunt said Cruise stared at her for a while, trying to figure out the right thing to say. His ultimate choice of words?

“Come on, stop being such a pussy. OK?” Blunt relayed, which led Hayes to gasp and Bateman to joke, “Nice, good for Tom.”

“And I did laugh and then we got through it,” Blunt said.

A sequel to “Edge Of Tomorrow” has been discussed since at least 2019, and Blunt told EW in 2021 that she read a script “that was in really great shape.” However, she told Howard Stern at the time that she thought “the movie is probably too expensive.”

You can hear the whole “SmartLess” interview below.

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Tom Cruise & Emily Blunt Wide Awake After 24-Hour, Transcontinental Premiere Marathon

The stars of Edge of Tomorrow traveled from London, to Paris to New York on Wednesday

Anyone traveling to three different countries and across the Atlantic on the same day is bound to be exhausted.

But not Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt .

The stars turned up in Manhattan late Wednesday night for the final leg of a whirlwind red-carpet marathon to promote their latest sci-fi action film, Edge of Tomorrow .

How did they look? Surprisingly well-refreshed.

“I feel good,” said Cruise, who spent nearly an hour greeting fans before walking the red carpet. “It’s like making a movie. You get a couple hours’ sleep. You get up and get back at it.”

The stars – who attended their first red carpet at 6:30 a.m. in London and then flew to Paris and then to New York – traveled on one plane with other cast members and director Doug Liman for the first leg. That “was a lot of fun,” said Cruise, who, with Blunt, spent much of that flight walking around and socializing.

When it was time to fly from Paris to New York later that day, Cruise, Blunt and Liman, who “bonded” while making the film, the director said, took their own plane.

“We hung out for a bit and then just crashed,” said Cruise, who looked crisp in a custom-fit black suit, white shirt and black tie.

“I don’t know what happened on the other plane,” he joked. “Emily and I were on ours, kind of going, ‘We don’t want to know. What happened on that plane stays on that plane.’ … We’ll find out later.”

Blunt, who looked stunning in a red strapless Prada column gown in New York City, had less-glamorous travel attire for the final flight. “I wore really disgusting pajamas,” she said. “Me and makeup artist snuggled up together. I slept for four hours. It was great.”

Before the movie, which opens to the public on Friday in the U.S., Blunt hit the gym “maybe twice a week,” but upped her workouts to six days a week, two and a half hours a day, to train for the physical demands of battling alien invaders in the film.

“That was very new to me,” she said.

That might come in handy one day, when her daughter Hazel, 3 months, gets older.

“I hope she knows not to mess with me if she’s being a bad teenager,” said the new mom. “She’ll know if she’s watched this movie.”

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How Dwayne Johnson Wooed Emily Blunt for ‘Jungle Cruise’ — and Why She Ghosted Him

As they prepare to release their $200 million-plus Disney tentpole, the newly minted BFFs now lean on each other for career guidance: "I go to him for advice because he lived in the trenches."

By Rebecca Keegan

Rebecca Keegan

Senior Editor, Film

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At about 4 a.m. in the fall of 2017, after a tiring night shoot on Universal’s Skyscraper , Dwayne Johnson , arguably the busiest person in Hollywood, set aside some time to film a video for Emily Blunt . At the time, he was attached to star in Jungle Cruise , which various producers had been trying to get off the ground at Disney since at least 2004, after the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie revealed the moneymaking potential of a theme park ride reimagined as a film franchise.

Johnson, who had been taken with Blunt since The Devil Wears Prada , felt she’d be his ideal sparring partner in the film, which was envisioned as a two-hander. “I had always admired her as an actor, but also when I would watch her on talk shows, she had this personality that was effervescent, that was cool and very, very charming.” So far Blunt was proving impervious to what producer Beau Flynn calls the filmmakers’ “unilateral targeted attack.” Looking to take a break after shooting Mary Poppins Returns and A Quiet Place back-to-back, she had declined to read a script and remained unmoved even after receiving a heartfelt letter from Sean Bailey, the chief of Disney’s live-action studio.

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So when Jungle Cruise ‘s taciturn Spanish director, Jaume Collet-Serra, was planning to fly to New York to hand deliver a script directly to Blunt at her home in Brooklyn, Johnson wanted to send him along with the video as a kind of charm assist. “I must have shot it about five or six times because I had not communicated with Emily yet,” Johnson says. “I had not even met her. And I wanted to let her know via this video just how important she was to this movie and how I only wanted her in this movie. And it was great. And I … I actually never heard again from Emily. Didn’t respond at all. Just ghosted me.”

Says Blunt, with a smile: “I thought the video was sweet. Didn’t know you were going to be so sensitive.” Chalk up the misunderstanding to cultural differences — her British reserve versus his wrestling-ring-decibel enthusiasm. Eventually, spurred by Collet-Serra’s pitch that the film would be reminiscent of the Indiana Jones films and Romancing the Stone (and Johnson’s “sweet” video), Blunt did read the script and was won over, with the additional help of a generous payday.

Now the duo are on a soundstage in Atlanta in mid-July, where Johnson is in the final weeks of filming the Warner Bros. superhero movie Black Adam and Blunt has flown in from shooting a BBC/Amazon Western series in Spain to join him for Jungle Cruise press. The pair are seated in front of a lavish boat and jungle set, as crew around them arrange some prop shrubbery. With all the Disney promotional jazz hands deployed, this scene almost feels like the pre-pandemic movie business, save for the masks on the crew.

Brought together onscreen for their odd-couple appeal, offscreen the duo share a business savvy. As the film industry undergoes the most dramatic period of change in its more than 100-year history, battered by COVID and the rapid adoption of streaming, these two actors are navigating the moment with a shrewdness and an unusually hands-on approach to contracts, distribution and marketing. Where they differ is on their willingness to openly engage on such matters.

Periodically throughout the interview, Blunt seems to be trying to keep Johnson’s candor in check. When he starts to answer a question about their contracts, she’ll interject, “You’ll be quoted.” Some of this is a shtick they’ve adopted for the film’s promotion, but some is genuinely rooted in their DNA. As stars, Blunt, 38, and Johnson, 49, barely seem to hail from the same galaxy. “He said to me once, ‘I love that your debut was onstage with Dame Judi Dench and mine was in the wrestling ring cutting myself with razors,’ ” Blunt says.

This summer they’re bringing audiences a $200 million-plus, four-quadrant popcorn movie that would have seemed like an obvious profit engine for its studio in any other era. Instead, their movie, which will open in theaters and on Disney+ (for a $30 fee) on July 30, is the latest test of the moviegoing audience’s appetites a year and a half into the COVID-19 pandemic. Jungle Cruise is a family-oriented film coming out at a time when most children in the U.S. and around the world are not yet vaccinated and COVID cases once again are spiking globally because of new variants. Despite the health news, there have been some encouraging signs at the box office, most recently with Disney’s July 9 hybrid release of Black Widow , which debuted to a pandemic-era best of $158.8 million at the worldwide box office, plus another $60 million on Disney+. ( Black Widow dropped a steep 67 percent at the box office in its second weekend, prompting the National Association of Theatre Owners to blame the studio’s simultaneous release strategy for a “stunning collapse.”)

“We all created our own space at home where we watched and consumed our movies,” Johnson says of how the pandemic changed the business. “We wondered, once we got back to the theatrical experience, are the majority of people now going, ‘You know what, I’m good. We’re going to watch it at home’? What we’re seeing now [at theaters] starting with A Quiet Place and Cruella , and then Fast & Furious and certainly with Black Widow … it’s invigorating.”

Johnson wants the theatrical business to bounce back for the sake of his studio partners, but his own viewing habits resemble the most couch-bound of consumers, since he has not been able to go to a movie without being instantly recognized and mobbed by fans since the 1990s. Blunt, meanwhile, goes to the theater incognito all the time. “I’m small, I blend in,” she says. “Put on a hat. It’s fun.” Where she’s a diehard for the theatrical experience, “I’m like, ‘Listen, Emily,’ ” Johnson says, lifting his iPhone. ” ‘Watch this movie. Turn it sideways. Look, we’ll watch this for two and a half hours.’ ”

The two brought those disparate perspectives into their meetings with Disney about how to release Jungle Cruise , with the studio ultimately deciding on the hybrid release strategy due to the slow pace of vaccine rollouts globally.

Johnson says that after finishing Jungle Cruise , he and Blunt continued to consult with each other about how to handle production during the pandemic and how to manage their deals — which often have been linked to box office — amid the changing release strategies. “We’re all trying to figure it out,” Johnson says. “Emily and I have had this conversation about how one thing will impact another, these dollars are dollars now and then down the line. It’s an important conversation for us to have.” Blunt says she has relied on him for counsel as she navigates the next stage of her career. “I really appreciate that DJ comes from struggle,” Blunt says. “He comes from some hard times, and he wears it very lightly and in a very wise philosophical sense. And so I do go to him for advice because he has lived in the trenches. He has not just winged it, and it has not been this meteoric rise to where he is now. It’s been a lot of razor blades and tears.”

Jungle Cruise , which is based on a 65-year-old riverboat cruise theme park ride, is no slam dunk. While 2003’s Pirates became a five-film box office juggernaut, that same year’s The Haunted Mansion was panned, and Disney’s most recent ride-inspired movie, Tomorrowland , flopped — even in the much more hospitable 2015 moviegoing environment — grossing just $209 million globally. Box office tracking has been less predictive during the pandemic, but some sources close to the film already are worried about Jungle Cruise , hopeful the Disney+ premium offering buttresses their numbers, like it did for Disney’s Cruella . As the studio did with Black Widow , in a rare display of transparency for the streaming era, it is expected to release the Disney+ numbers for Jungle Cruise publicly.

Over the years, Disney had dabbled with multiple versions of Jungle Cruise , including one starring Tom Hanks and Tim Allen. In 2015, producers John Davis and John Fox came up with an idea inspired by the origins of the ride, which itself was inspired by the 1951 Humphrey Bogart–Katharine Hepburn adventure film The African Queen . With Disney’s blessing, they brought the pitch for a contentious, evenly matched male-female duo making their way on a riverboat adventure to Johnson’s production company, Seven Bucks, and he signed on within two days. It would be more than two years before they signed the actress to play Hepburn to Johnson’s Bogey and several drafts before they landed on the shooting script, which has five credited writers (screenplay by Glenn Ficarra, John Requa and Michael Green, with additional story credits for Josh Goldstein and John Norville).

In the film, which is set in the early 20th century, Blunt plays Dr. Lily Houghton, a pants-wearing scientist who hires Johnson’s steamboat captain, Frank Wolff, to steer her down a jungle river in pursuit of the Tree of Life. When Blunt came aboard, she had copious script notes, much of them scraping away what she deemed unnecessary backstory for Lily. “She brought a great point out to us, which is, ‘How come a lot of male figures just get to be adventurers, or explorers?’ There’s no backstory in Indiana Jones. He’s just a badass archeologist,” says Flynn. In the film, Blunt often has the swashbuckling moments, while Johnson often supplies the comic relief. On the ride, a Disney castmember called a “skipper” delivers a dad-joke-laden narration for guests, a task Johnson delivers with aplomb in the film. “You needed an actor like DJ with the willingness to poke fun at himself and to be the butt of all the jokes,” Blunt says.

Along with the business, cultural attitudes have changed since the Pirates franchise launched, further complicating what once looked like a safe bet. As Jungle Cruise was being made, Disney’s Imagineers were updating the ride, including making changes to Indigenous characters that had been depicted as primitive and threatening. The movie subverts that imagery, in a plot twist that reveals the Indigenous characters are the ones getting the last laugh. “You’re trying to represent the spirit of the ride that is pierced into people’s nostalgic memory,” Blunt says. “But you want to do it sensitively. You want to make sure that everyone feels seen and heard in a way that’s really respectful.” There’s also a gay character and a fair amount of time given to Lily’s radical-for-her-era life choices — one of Frank’s nicknames for her is “pants.”

For a movie with ambitious action set pieces and CG characters, the Jungle Cruise set relied on an unusual amount of improv by its stars and supporting cast of Jack Whitehall, Jesse Plemons and Paul Giamatti. “In a normal [studio] movie, you would be like, ‘Oh, I don’t have time. Just give me what is the thing that’s going to work,’ ” says Collet-Serra, who has developed a reputation in Hollywood for delivering genre movies that are better than they ought to be, like the 2016 Blake Lively shark movie The Shallows , and multiple Liam Neeson thrillers. “But here, we tried to keep some of the scenes a little bit more visually loose to let them improv. There’s tons of footage. I could cut two other movies with different jokes completely because they gave me so much.”

When Disney tested the film, which was shot and almost completely finished before the pandemic, they found that what audiences wanted most, more than spectacle, was the scenes of repartee between the two leads. “Very early on, we learned that their chemistry was magic and that people really cared a lot more about them fighting, or this banter that they have, than what they were bantering about,” Collet-Serra says. “We had more plot. But at some point, people were like, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s all nice, but give me more of them together.’ ” Johnson was present for multiple test screenings, according to Bailey. “Inevitably the first call I got the next morning was from Dwayne about what he thought about the preview, and what his takeaways were, and what the studio’s takeaways were.”

In early March 2020, Jungle Cruise seemed to be on track for a summer release. By then, Johnson was shooting Red Notice for Netflix in Atlanta and about to leave for some days of production in Italy, and Blunt was attending the premiere for A Quiet Place Part II in New York, which was supposed to open March 18. Plans for all three films would grind to a halt as the pandemic set in. By summer of that year, Johnson, his wife, Lauren, and their two daughters, now 5 and 3, tested positive for coronavirus . “It was very scary,” says Johnson, whose symptoms were mild. “I couldn’t control it because then the nanny took it home to her family. And then the housekeeper took it home to her family, and they were a little older there. And you don’t want to be the fire-starter that then causes all this bedlam and fear. But luckily we all got through it, thank God.” There were silver linings for a person whose work ethic was forged on the 300-night-a-year pro wrestling circuit. “I’m always going and going and going,” Johnson says. “It really forced me to stop and slow down.” The Hollywood pause also gave Johnson time to focus on something he’d long wanted to do: launch a tequila brand. In 2020, his Teremana became the fastest-growing brand in the history of spirits, selling roughly 400,000 cases in its first year of business.

Blunt, meanwhile, spent much of the early months of the pandemic in a house outside New York City with her husband, John Krasinski, and their daughters, 5 and 7. While Krasinski launched his Some Good News web series, Blunt focused on home-schooling and keeping household spirits up as Paramount pushed the release date for A Quiet Place Part II five times. Blunt and Krasinski were adamant about preserving a theatrical release, even as Paramount sold off other big movies to streamers during the pandemic, including Coming 2 America and The Trial of the Chicago 7 . Ultimately, Paramount released A Quiet Place Part II on May 28 in theaters, where it has grossed $285.6 million worldwide, before releasing it July 12 on Paramount+. Though the film had its theatrical release, its window was truncated from the pre-pandemic norm of 90 days, with far fewer than the remarkable 266 days the original film had spent in theaters, and Blunt and Krasinski sought to have their deals with Paramount restructured to accommodate for that difference. Asked how those talks had resolved, Blunt says: “We had a solely theatrical release. We were given a 45-day theatrical window. We got everything we wanted.”

One pandemic event movie from which Johnson is conspicuously absent is Universal’s F9: The Fast Saga , which has grossed $591.3 million since it opened in China in May. Johnson starred in the previous three films in the series, as well as the 2019 spinoff, Hobbs & Shaw , but is not scheduled to appear in any future Fast films. In a June Men’s Health interview promoting the latest movie, Vin Diesel implied that a much-publicized feud between him and Johnson actually was a technique he deployed to elicit a better acting performance from the former pro wrestler. “I could give a lot of tough love,” Diesel said. “Not Felliniesque, but I would do anything I’d have to do in order to get performances in anything I’m producing.”

When asked about Diesel’s comments, Johnson says, “I laughed and I laughed hard. I think everyone had a laugh at that. And I’ll leave it at that. And that I’ve wished them well. I wish them well on Fast 9 . And I wish them the best of luck on Fast 10 and Fast 11 and the rest of the Fast & Furious movies they do that will be without me.” Blunt can’t resist extending the moment. “Just thank God he was there,” she says of Diesel. “Thank God. He carried you through that.” “Felliniesque,” Johnson says.

Johnson’s hardest role yet, he says, is the one he’s shooting now, in Black Adam , in which he plays the DC Comics antihero. “Black Adam has all the powers of Superman, but the difference is he is blessed with magic,” Johnson says. “And also, by a code of ethics in the world of superheroes, they don’t kill the bad guys, but Black Adam does. There were a lot of elements like that that made me feel this is a real opportunity here. I felt like everything that I had done in the past in terms of my career, all the movies that I had done over the decades, even the ones that didn’t do well, all led to this particular role.”

It was while Johnson was doing a press junket for the 2008 movie Get Smart that the seed of the idea to play Black Adam was planted. At the time, there were rumors about Johnson playing Shazam in a movie that never materialized (he would later executive produce the 2019 Warners movie Shazam! , starring Zachary Levi). After a journalist at the Get Smart junket suggested to Johnson that he play Black Adam instead, the idea interested him. “I was in a different point in my career,” Johnson says. “I couldn’t get things greenlit really. So I said, ‘It’s up to the fans.’ ” Fans loved the idea of Johnson in the role, which he ultimately started shooting with Collet-Serra again in the director’s chair, in Atlanta in April. “This is our shot at the superhero space,” says Hiram Garcia, president of production at Seven Bucks, Johnson’s former brother-in-law and a friend who has known the star for more than 25 years. “I’ve seen DJ in all versions of great shape, but the shape he got in for this movie. … He just takes it so seriously, the character, the physical approach and what he’s put into his training, his diet. To see him change his body in that way — he takes great pride in not needing a muscle suit.”

Just as Black Adam was beginning production in Atlanta, after having been delayed eight months by the pandemic, the Georgia legislature passed a sweeping new voting law that the Justice Department is challenging on the grounds that it denies Black Georgians their voting rights. Hollywood’s deep investment in production in the state came up for debate, and some producers decided to exit Georgia, including Will Smith and Anton Fuqua with their Apple movie, Emancipation . Others, like Ryan Coogler with Black Panther 2 , remained. “Right as we were kicking off our production, that was going down,” Johnson says. “You start to feel pressure from a lot of different sides that you should stand up for something and you should leave if you don’t agree with the voting laws. I was adamant and clear that Black Adam was not going anywhere. We had committed to the state of Georgia and to the people here in Georgia. And this is a place that we had filmed multiple movies over the years. And when you commit to our hardworking locals and their families, the last thing you want to do is just pick up and move. So we weren’t going anywhere. We [the film’s producers] had the conversation. It was heated for about a week.”

Johnson, who in the past has said he would consider running for president, is comfortable weighing in on political issues, in contrast to Blunt. “I’m not quite American enough to say certain things,” Blunt says. “I appreciate how you navigate it because you’re very authentic and you stand by it. And you don’t just follow the crowd. You do step out and say certain things that might get you in hot water.”

Johnson, with 254 million followers, is the most followed American man on Instagram, where he shares workout routines and family moments and breaks news on his projects that once would have been revealed through studio press releases. “Coming from wrestling in front of 50 people at a used-car dealership or a flea market, the intention was always to have a relationship and a connection with [the fans],” Johnson says. “With social media, it was an opportunity for me to continue to connect with an audience where I didn’t have to rely on going on a talk show or this interview. It’s been the most invaluable decision of my career.” Blunt, meanwhile, has no social media profile. “I’ve always loved the mystique of an actor,” she says. “I don’t need to know what they brush their teeth with. I don’t want to know. I love people being hard to figure out.”

While Johnson sees Black Adam as the culmination of his career, Blunt is uninterested in comic book films. “I really understand that [superhero movies] are like a religion for a lot of people,” she says. “They don’t appeal to me in the same way. I don’t have this burning desire to play a superhero.” While Johnson has been shooting Black Adam , Blunt has been shooting a Western for the BBC called The English , which Amazon will release in the U.S. She plays an aristocratic woman who’s seeking revenge for her son’s death and befriends a Pawnee warrior. “It’s about love and revenge and race and history,” she says.

Despite their inauspicious start with a ghosting, Johnson has officially recruited Blunt into his orbit of regular collaborators, which also includes Ryan Reynolds and Kevin Hart. There is discussion of a Jungle Cruise sequel, and he has drafted Blunt to star in an as-yet-unannounced film project that he’s producing. “Not only is she a huge movie star but, more importantly, really the most empathetic human being I’ve ever met,” Johnson says as he is being pulled from the interview to get back to Black Adam . “God,” Blunt says, in mock mortification at his sincerity. “Get out of here.”

Blunt, who has been ribbing Johnson for much of the interview, turns serious to take stock of what she considers Johnson’s most extraordinary creation. “When you get to know him as being much gentler, much more shy than people realize, you really realize that The Rock is the performance of a lifetime,” she says. “It is so the antithesis of who he is. And so I’m going to push him to play, to take big swings with characters. Because it’s really transformative if you know him as I do and then you see him be The Rock — you’re like, ‘Who is that?’ “

This story first appeared in the July 21 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.

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Tom Cruise pulls epic stunt at the Olympics closing ceremony

The video above may not be available in some regions. You can watch it in the X (formerly Twitter) post below.

Tom Cruise brought a touch of Hollywood glamour to the Olympics closing ceremony in Paris on Sunday night when he hurled himself off the roof of the Stade de France — firmly secured to a cable, of course — to cheers from the 71,500-strong crowd.

After rappelling all the way to terra firma to the Mission Impossible soundtrack played by Grammy-winning R&B artist H.E.R , the movie legend grabbed the Olympic flag, jumped on a motorbike, and raced out of the stadium. Viewers around the world were then treated to a slickly produced action sequence featuring Cruise racing through the streets of Paris, riding straight onto an aircraft, and parachuting into Los Angeles — the location of the 2028 Olympics — before handing the flag to American mountain biker Kate Courtney.

“Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to bring the Olympic flag to Los Angeles.” Tom Cruise: #Paris2024   #LA28 #ClosingCeremony   📸 Tom Cruise, Olympics pic.twitter.com/gkMmCUEb0P — GSC (@GSCinemas) August 11, 2024

Passing the flag from the current host city to the next one is part of the Olympic tradition and so using a representative like Cruise made perfect sense for an Olympic Games being held in a city that’s home to Hollywood. The sixty-two-year-old Cruise has long been known to love performing his own stunts (including this utterly crazy one in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation),  and so the closing ceremony provided an excellent opportunity for him to add yet another one to the list.

The movie star also posted a photo of himself at the Olympic stadium with the message, “Thank you, Paris! Now off to L.A.”

Thank you, Paris! Now off to LA. pic.twitter.com/MxlAb0hZbT — Tom Cruise (@TomCruise) August 11, 2024

Taking place within the confines of a stadium, the Paris Olympics’ closing event was a more traditional affair compared to the opening ceremony last month, which took place outside for the first time in the sporting extravaganza’s history. While rain at the opening event soaked athletes and the gathered crowds, Sunday night’s closing ceremony enjoyed decent weather in what looked to be an exciting evening of entertainment.

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A decade ago, Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt starred in Edge of Tomorrow, a sci-fi alien invasion flick based on the memorably named Japanese light novel All You Need Is Kill. However, Edge of Tomorrow didn't bring in the big profits for Warner Bros. and it finished with $370.5 million worldwide against a $178 million budget. Nevertheless, the film has picked up a cult following that has clamored for Edge of Tomorrow 2, and those hopes may actually come to fruition now that Cruise is back at Warner Bros. with a long-term deal.

Via The Hollywood Reporter, Cruise's new pact with Warner Bros. includes teaming up with studio executives Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy to develop and produce "original and franchise theatrical films." Cruise's other successful franchises -- Top Gun and Mission: Impossible -- are both lined up at Paramount. The only preexisting WB franchise that Cruise has already starred in is Edge of Tomorrow. That is, unless Cruise suddenly wants to star in a Harry Potter flick or put on a cape for DC.

When you sit down to watch a movie like Interview with the Vampire, you realize almost immediately that they really don't make them like they used to. The movie, which is now available to stream on Hulu, is a gothic horror movie about how sad it is to be a vampire, and it's appearance on Hulu is perfectly timed for the Halloween season.

Interview with the Vampire is not an incredibly scary movie, but it definitely evokes fall in a couple of crucial ways. Now that it's available to stream, here are three reasons you should check it out: It features an all-star cast

As an aging movie star who is driven to entertain his audience, Tom Cruise has committed himself to more and more daring stunts with each movie he puts out. In each of these movies, Cruise seems to be playing a version of himself, a harried man who is also confident that he's the only one who can keep it all going.

There was a time, though, when Cruise was willing to deliver much more full-bodied performances in everything from Born on the Fourth of July to Magnolia. Even more recently, though, Cruise has found vehicles that allow him to give a more complete performance, and one of those movies is now trending on Netflix. American Made was released in 2017, and its success on Netflix is suggestive of what the movie does well. Here are three reasons you should check it out: It's a grounded crime thriller

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'Jungle Cruise': Emily Blunt on horrific nature run-in that had her 'dropping her pants' — and why The Rock calls her 'the female Indiana Jones'

Emily Blunt does not play a mother in Jungle Cruise , Disney’s latest big-screen spin on a popular theme park attraction. She’s Dr. Lily Houghton, a scientist who, along with her brother MacGregor ( Jack Whitehall ), joins forces with Dwayne Johnson ’s pun-slinging steamboat captain for a trek through the Amazon in search of a petal with miraculous healing powers.

That’s unlike the Quiet Place   movies, in which Blunt now quite famously plays the post-apocalypse’s most protective mom against invading aliens.

Guess which one her kids get to see?

“They can see the Quiet Place films when they’re 35, at least,” cracked Blunt about her two young daughters with husband John Krasinski in a recent group chat with Yahoo Entertainment where she was joined by Johnson, Whitehall and Edgar Ramirez , who plays a deadly mercenary on their trail (watch above).

“They haven’t seen Jungle Cruise yet, but they saw the trailer, and they absolutely lost their minds for it. It is the one thing I’ve done that they are really interested in seeing.” (Our apologies to Mary Poppins Returns .)

Johnson’s children have a wide range in age — 19, 5 and 3 — but the prolific mega-star says he’s particularly excited about showing them Jungle Cruise .

“I think there’s a lot of elements of Jungle Cruise … it’s something for everyone. Adults, kids, smaller kids, big kids like me. … That’s one of the many magical components when you do a movie that’s based off of an iconic Disney ride that has been beloved for generations. There’s a little bit of that Disney magic that’s always infused in movies like this.”

In the film, the Houghtons and the Rock face constant threats through their expedition into the Great Outdoors, from various animals to waterfalls to undead conquistadors. But nothing Blunt faced in Jungle Cruise compared to her scariest run-in with nature in real life.

“I was in Tanzania and I was climbing Mount Meru and we’d been warned about fire ants,” the actress recalled. “They’re like these giant red ants, and when they bite you, it’s … fire. So I was walking and I looked down and I had clearly stepped in a nest, and I must’ve had a hundred just climbing up my boot around my ankle.

“I pulled my pants down in front of everyone, shook 'em out in front of all my friends at school, [they were full of ants]. That was the scariest. Everyone was screaming and trying to flick them off of me. They were climbing all up my leg and I did get some fiery little nips.”

Johnson had high praise for Blunt in a recent social media promo for the film, going as far as to call his co-star “the female Indiana Jones.” He elaborated on that point in our interview.

“I understand the set-up is a tough one, because that is a beloved character,” he says of the Harrison Ford screen idol. “But I believe it. [ Raiders of the Lost Ark ], Romancing the Stone , The African Queen , [ Pirates of the Caribbean ], those were some of our inspirations. … And what a privilege and a pleasure it was for us to be in a movie where the core point of view was from that of a woman, who is adventurous and groundbreaking for that time, wore pants proudly at a time when pants weren’t cool for women to wear.

“She has all these elements of a female Indiana Jones, and I mean that really respectfully and with great reverence to Harrison Ford and the character he created.”

Jungle Cruise is now playing in theaters and on Disney+ with Premier Access.

— Video produced by Anne Lilburn and edited by Jason Fitzpatrick

Watch the trailer:

Read more on Yahoo Entertainment:

Watch 'Jungle Cruise' stars Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt zing each other with explosive allegations

Disneyland unveils revamped, racism-free Jungle Cruise ride ahead of movie release

Humphrey Bogart's son addresses the clear parallels between The African Queen and Jungle Cruise

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