Keri Russell Relied on Tom Cruise for Stunt Safety  5/1/06

Actress Keri Russell is grateful to co-star Tom Cruise for protecting her when they filmed dangerous stunts for blockbuster sequel Mission: Impossible III. The former Felicity star was appearing in her first action film and looked to the veteran star for support as she got to grips with the rigorous demands of her biggest role yet. 

She explains, "Tom is so into doing the stunts and he's so good at them, so most of the things I do are with him. "They'll take like eight hours to set up. We'll be jumping off the top of this building in downtown LA onto a moving van. 

"He's in a harness, I'm in a harness and I'm hanging onto him as we jump off. "Two minutes before we're about to do this, they come up and say, 'Now if you don't want to do this, we can take the two hours and take it all down.' "Like I can say no! Tom is waiting! The thing is, Tom has done it for so long and is so good at it, it kind of felt safe being with him. "I figured they're not going to kill Tom Cruise, so if I'm with him, I'm safe!"