No regrets. Thandie Newton is confident that she made the right move after exposing the “insecurity” she felt while working with Tom Cruise on Mission: Impossible 2.
“I was surprised by the appreciation I had got,” the Westworld star, 47, admitted during a conversation on Variety‘s “The Big Ticket” podcast on Wednesday, August 26. “I thought that I would be in trouble because that’s kind of what I’m used to.”
Newton made headlines in July after calling out Cruise, 58, who she claimed behaved like a “very dominant individual” while they were filming the 2000 action movie. “I was so scared of Tom,” she told New York magazine. “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.”
At the time, the Emmy nominee recounted an experience with the actor, who got “so frustrated” with the way she was performing a scene and decided to show her how he thought it should be done. For Newton, this was “the most unhelpful” situation that brought her “into a place of terror and insecurity” as an actress.
“He wasn’t horrible,” she explained. “It was just — he was really stressed. I had the most extraordinary time.”
While her comments were hailed by many as “not drinking the Kool-Aid” — and were applauded by vocal Cruise critic Leah Remini — Newton wasn’t anticipating such a strong reaction. During the same July interview, the British actress also claimed that she faced abuse and discrimination from Amy Pascal, the former cochairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment, who was once “reeling off these stereotypes” for a potential role for Newton in Charlie’s Angels. (Pascal later told New York magazine that she had “no recollection” of the interaction with Newton.)
“I just happened to be an older woman who has recognized that knowing the truth and speaking the truth has benefited me a hell of a lot more than being silenced or seeing people silenced around me,” Newton said on Wednesday. “I have nothing to lose because I could just then not get hired, which is kind of normal for people in my generation anyway. So I’ve got nothing to lose and I would rather go out using this moment. … It’s not even about my confessions. It’s about that this is the reality of what people face.”
Though her comments gained widespread attention, the Pursuit of Happyness actress “felt solid” about her decision to speak out. “I know that it made people frightened,” she told Variety. “Individuals [in the industry] were very frightened … It’s like how far back do you go?”
