The former Bond girl was taped as she tried out for the project, but she struggled to focus on the take with chatter from Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie going on behind her.
She tells BlogtalkRadio.com, “In my audition there was a moment where I was doing a scene with a guy who was standing in for Richard Jenkins, who plays my father. I could see Tom Cruise and McQuarrie out of the corner of my eye kind of talking during my scene and it was distracting. So I said, ‘I’m sorry guys, do you think you could not talk during my scene?'”
She immediately regretted speaking out and thought she had jeopardised her job: “I thought, ‘Oh my goodness, what have I done?’ I’m probably the only actress in 30 years who’s ever told Tom Cruise to stop talking.”
Her full audition tape was sent to studio bosses but her ballsy move appeared to work and Pike landed the role.
She says, “Chris sent me an e-mail saying, ‘Now that’s how you book it (the job)!'”
And the incident didn’t taint her working relationship with Cruise: “We did connect. We found this nice easy humour from the word go.”
