Hayley Atwell Slams “Invasive” Tom Cruise Romance Rumors

Hayley Atwell‘s newest mission? Dispelling rumors.

The actress got candid about romance rumors that popped up between her and her costar Tom Cruise while they filmed Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One, the seventh film in the franchise, and how it felt to be filming amid the gossip.

“I would be like, ‘Ooh, there’s some weird rumors, and it feels base, it feels a little dirty, it feels grubby, it’s not what I’m about,'” she told The Independent in an interview published July 8. “Why are things being assumed or projected onto me about my relationship with my work colleague and boss?” 

She added it was particularly upsetting because not only does she view Tom an “uncle” figure, but that the rumors involved “people in my actual life, my personal life, who have to be on the receiving end of that. It becomes invasive.”

But the 41-year-old, who is engaged to music producer Ned Wolfgang Kelly, said the Risky Business actor knew exactly what to say whenever she went to him for advice over the situation.

“When I’ve talked to him about it,” she recalled, “he’d be like ‘You know exactly who you are. You know what you’re about. And that is the only thing that matters. It doesn’t matter what people think of you, if you are in integrity with yourself, if you know what your value system is.'”