'He wouldn't do it': Pom Klementieff urged Tom Cruise to kick her in the stomach

Tom Cruise refused to kick Pom Klementieff in the stomach for a scene in 'Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1'.

The 60-year-old actor famously gets involved in the action and does his own stunts in his films, but his co-star - who plays the highly-dangerous Paris - admitted she couldn't persuade him to boot her in the guts during a fight in Venice, even though she insisted it would "help" her own performance.

Indicating her midsection, Pom told Entertainment Weekly magazine: "I kept telling him to just kick me here.

"I was squeezing abs. [I said], 'You can just go for it.' He was like 'No, no, no, no, no.' I was like, 'But it's going to help me!' But he wouldn't do it."

Director Christopher McQuarrie described her character as "chaotic and a "rebel", and the 37-year-old actress relished the fact her character was very different to any other woman in the franchise.

The filmmaker said: "[Paris is] very, very, very much a chaotic element in the story. It doesn't matter how deep in the background she is, you're going to be watching her at all times and wondering what she's going to do."

Pom added: "[She] destroys everything in her path. She's a rebel, she's a killer, she's extremely skilled and quite lonely too...

"She's very different style-wise from every other actress in the 'Mission: Impossible' franchise.

"She has a side that's a bit more punk and she doesn't really give a f***. So that was cool."

Pom's character's name was a subtle tribute to Leonard Nomoy, who played magician/spy the Great Paris in the original 'Mission: Impossible' TV series.

She added: "When Christopher McQuarrie cast me for the role, he didn't know which name the character would have.

"It was cool to name me Paris, me being from France, and then they decided that I would speak French because I speak French in real life."

When it came to shooting the movie, the actress' favourite scene was when she had to drive a Humvee to pursue Tom's Ethan Hunt and Hayley Atwell's Grace, who were inside a tiny yellow Fiat.

She said: "I had so much fun shooting this scene.

"It was so special to be on location in Rome. We were shooting during COVID, so we were very lucky to be here. I was trying to not laugh too much because I was having so much fun in the car following the Fiat."