Annabelle Wallis, who plays Grace Shelby in historical drama Peaky Blinders, says she hit if off with her co-star Tom Cruise so much on the set of new summer blockbuster The Mummy that the script was re-written to add more humour.
Speaking to RTÉ Entertainment, she said: "Tom is a cinephile, this is his life, he loves it and he doesn't do anything by half, which is incredibly inspiring.
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"He's also incredibly funny. We would have the most epic laughter sessions between the two of us and it was that natural rapport inspired the comedic element to the movie that wasn't written in.
"It was written in after people observed our silliness on the set. Tom is a lot of fun and he's incredibly inspiring."
The big-budget remake is the first of a projected Dark Universe franchise from Universal, with Cruise as artefact hunter Nick Morton, Wallis as no nonsense Egyptologist Jenny Halsey, and Russell Crowe as Dr. Jekyll.
Wallis also said that it was her role in Peaky Blinders that landed her a part in The Mummy. "This is my first blockbuster and it was because of Peaky Blinders that I got this role," she said. "They saw me play one formidable Irish lass and they through that I'd fit well in this world."
Hollywood A-listers Cruise and Russell Crowe also appear on the big screen for the first time ever in The Mummy and director Alex Kurtzman says he just had to have these alpha males face off in the movie.
Speaking to RTÉ Entertainment, he said: "They had to have a fight! How could you not with those two? It was amazing. They've been wanting to work together for 20 years and they're good friends and the right movie just never came along and then ours did."
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"The most amazing thing for me watching the fight was they are both incredible actors and both have done their fair share of fight scenes in movies separately but to watch them come together was great," he said.
"And when you do a fight scene like that, you have to throw a real punch, you have to be so experienced that you have to know exactly how to miss and their technical ability to choreograph that while also protecting each other was pretty amazing to watch."
Despite the starry cast-list, the lead role is played by Algerian actress Sofia Boutella who plays Ahmanet, an ancient Egyptian princess who is mistakenly awoken from the dead and tries to reclaim dominion over mankind.
She praised Kurtzman for making the blockbuster a very female-led movie, with Annabelle Wallis of Peaky Blinders fame also sharing screen-time with Cruise.
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"Alex Kurtzman, the director, was so intelligent in doing that," Boutella told RTÉ Entertainment.
"I think it's empowering for a woman and more roles are needed out there for woman and I love the fact that my character and Annabelle's character are opinionated, strong females."
The Mummy is in cinemas from Friday, June 10.
