Los Angeles, Jul 9 (IANS): Actress Vanessa Kirby had to raise her game to compete with Hollywood star Tom Cruise during the filming of ‘Mission: Impossible – Fallout’ and the upcoming film ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’.

The ‘Crown’ actress had to become fitter than ever to keep up with Tom Cruise, who is 26 years her senior, in the latest ‘Mission: Impossible’ film, reports ‘Mirror.co.uk’.

Vanessa, 35, reprises her role as arms dealer the White Widow in ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’, out this week. And she joked: “Tom is the best runner in the world, so if you are suddenly asked to run next to him, you can’t be flagging behind like I was at sports day at school. You have to really step up and be ready. But the physical aspect of the role is a very beautiful gift because you have to learn about your physicality. That is something I didn’t have before.”

As per ‘Mirror.co.uk’, the British star became a household name playing Margaret in Netflix hit The Crown and made her Hollywood debut as the White Widow in 2018.

She explained: “Going straight from ‘The Crown’ to ‘Mission: Impossible – Fallout’ was overwhelming at that time but it was also such an amazing initiation into filmmaking. ‘The Crown’ had epic scale but these films are something else. It’s Tom Cruise with huge movie sets, massive stunts and so many cast and crew.”

She admitted seeing Cruise, 61, do his own stunts as secret agent Ethan Hunt shocked her at first. But she said: “Now I’m just used to him going beyond what I could ever imagine him doing.”