Is Tom Cruise giving up Hollywood to become a full-time Brit? (2024)

Hollywood A-lister Tom Cruise is renowned as an enthusiastic Anglophile and the star's influence in the UK is expanding all the more - from mingling with royals and celebrities to charming market town mayors and singing along at big-name gigs.

The Mission: Impossible actor has been an even more familiar figure at events across the country this summer, including last weekend's Glastonbury Festival and Taylor Swift's sold-out Wembley gigs earlier last month.

Cruise, 61, was last week seen boarding a helicopterat a helipad in central London with 29-year-old son Connor before turning up at Glastonbury that weekend.

Earlier this year he reunited with Prince Williamat a charity event, where the friendly pair joked about the prince's footwearfor Top Gun: Maverick's 2022 UK premiere.

Cruise was filmed escorting the Princess of Wales up stairs for that event in June 2022 - and has spoken in the past of his bond with the late Queen Elizabeth II.

Cruise spends a lot of time in the town an hour's drive from London, due to it being home to the UK base of Scientology, the religious movement to which he belongs.

He appeared in a video segment for her Platinum Jubileein 2022 and was later invited to tea with her at Windsor Castle shortly before her death in September.

Cruise said of her that year:'She's a woman I greatly admire. She has tremendous dignity and I admire her devotion. What she has accomplished has been historic.'

He latermade a cameo appearance at King Charles's Coronation Concert in May last year- delivering a video message from his Top Gun fighter jet, saying:'Pilot to pilot, Your Majesty. You can be my wingman.'

More recently, the Prince of Wales attended a gala for the London Air Ambulance Charity in February where he and Cruise posed in tuxedos - with a shot later shared on Kate and William's X/Twitter account with the caption: 'Fancy seeing you here!'

Other guests Cruise has invited to movie launches in the UK include mayors and other councillors covering the West Sussex market town of East Grinstead.

The actor was born in Syracuse, New York, and spent some of his upbringing in Canada - yet he declared in 2022: 'I guess I am an Anglophile. I spend a lot of time in Britain and that's not just for work reasons.

'It's a fantastic blend of old and new. I love seeing the sights, the Tower of London, Nelson's Column, Buckingham Palace and all those fantastic places which are just full of history.

'Britain is trendy, too, and has a lot that other countries then copy. I also love the British countryside.

'Seeing cows and sheep in the fields here is just so very British and just like we see in the movies in America.

'I always wondered whether it is really like that. It's great to go back to the US and say, "Yes, it really is".'

He favours UK locations for filming many of the scenes in his stunt-packed Mission Impossible movies - and not just the capital London.

The seventh instalment in the franchise took him to Birmingham in 2021, when the city's main Grand Central station stood in for Abu Dhabi airport.

While visiting England's second city, he spent two hours at the Indian restaurant Asha's, tucked into not one but two chicken korma meals and tipped staff £60.

While Cruise has luxurious homes in locations including Beverly Hills and Florida, he is also believed own properties around the East Grinstead area - including a 14-acre, £3.3million estate.

His daughter Isabella, who he and then-wife Nicole Kidman adopted in 1993 two years before they adopted Connor, lives not far away in Croydon.

She came to England not long after the break-up of Cruise's second marriage to actress Katie Holmes in 2012 and completed two years of an art degree before dropping out to try a 12-month hairdressing diploma with Vidal Sassoon.

She then signed up at the Delmar Academy of Make up and Hair at Ealing Studios.

While Cruise seemingly still has close relationships with Isabella and Connor, the actor notably has a strained relationship with daughter, Suri, 18 - whom he welcomed with Katie Holmes.

It was revealed that Suri dropped the surname Cruise, graduatingfrom high school last month going by name of Suri Noelle - her mother Katie's middle name.

Yet Cruise has been all smiles on his British travels lately - includinghaving a blast at Glastonbury last Saturday.

He was joined by his Mission Impossible co-star Simon Pegg, as well as X-Files actress Gillian Anderson, as they watched Coldplay's set - having been filmed singing along pre-performance to Oasis's chart-topper Don't Look Back In Anger.

The previous weekend he attended Swift's second concert at London's Wembley Stadium in a VIP area where he mingled with her NFL player boyfriend Travis Kelce.

Other celebrities there that night were Hugh Grant, Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis.

Also last month Cruise carried out Mission: Impossible 8 work - including a day trip in Oxford before flying his helicopter to a helipad in Battersea, south London.

Filming of UK scenes for the eighth instalment of the franchise initially took place between March and December 2022just roads from Downing Street, with Cruise as character Ethan Hunt seen kneeling in apparent surrender.

He has also been spotted filming a chase scene outside the Houses of Parliament - sprinting full pelt across Westminster Bridge, with the Palace of Westminster and Big Ben serving as a dramatic backdrop.

Meanwhile, there was an awkward moment at the London Heliport in Battersea last month when Cruise almost got into Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's car by mistake.

The Top Gun actor could be seen waving to adoring fans as he strode out on to the car park before attempting to yank open the door of the black Audi - only to realise it was the wrong vehicle.

Cruise has also been working on his latest movie at Longcross film studios in Surrey and was also filming in Derbyshire alongside co-stars Pegg and Hayley Attwell.

And he has shot scenes in London's Trafalgar Square, where he reportedly hired hawks to keep pigeons away from the setwhile working.

The action shots came after he was among the guests at Victoria Beckham's 50th birthday party where he posed with the former Spice Girl and her husband David - where Cruise is said to have stolen the show with his eye-catching breakdancing.

The actor has known the couple for 20 years and ex-England football captain David reportedly 'idolises' him.

His lengthy spells in the UK have also taken him to major sporting events including tennis at Wimbledon and the British Grand Prix at Silverstone in 2021.

The latest Mission: Impossible film is scheduled to come out May 23 next year, after Dead Reckoning Part One was released in July last year.

The movie franchise began in 1996 and is based on the 1966 television series of the same name.