Hollywood actress Hayley Atwell recently opened up about dealing with social anxiety, revealing that Tom Cruise helped her overcome the condition through a pep talk.

Atwell, who starred alongside Cruise in the 2023 film Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, shared her struggles with social anxiety during her appearance on the podcast Reign With Josh Smith.

“Social anxiety...It manifests in different ways, but the pep talk (Cruise) gave me helps that. If you walk into a room and you feel the anxieties coming, and it makes me want to retreat into myself, I start to overthink, and go: ‘Do I look weird? Do I seem awkward?’ We go into ourselves, and Tom said: ‘Try doing the opposite'," the 42-year-old actress recalled.

"So he was just like: ‘If you are scared of something just keep looking at it. Just try not to close your eyes or turn away. Just keep looking at it and it will often give you information about what to do to overcome it," Atwell, who will reprise her role as Grace in the long-running franchise's eighth part The Final Reckoning said, adding that it is easier to overcome social anxiety once the reason behind it is clear.

Directed by Christopher McQuarrie, The Final Reckoning is slated to hit theatres worldwide in May. Cruise will return in the role of the iconic spy agent Ethan Hunt in the upcoming film which is expected to conclude the franchise.