Bafta-winning filmmaker Lesley Paterson has unveiled her next Mission Impossible project – persuading Tom Cruise to do a triathlon. The screenwriter graced last month’s Oscars red carpet after her movie All Quiet On The Western Front picked up a string of nominations.
But Stirling-born Lesley, 42, is also a former world champion in the gruelling athletics event. Now she’s hoping to lure some of her new Hollywood pals into taking up the sport, which features swimming, cycling and running. And heading the list is Top Gun star Cruise and Glee actress Kate Hudson.
Lesley told the IronWomen podcast: “I’d love to get Tom Cruise to do a triathlon. He’d be epically awesome. Apparently he wanted to do one. And then Kate Hudson wants to do one as well, so I’m going to try to reach out to her.
“So we’ll see. It would be nice to get some celebs into it.
“I think most people, if they’re at the top of their field, understand that it’s mastery of craft that has got them there and that’s what they love and enjoy. That’s where their passion is, so anything they apply themselves to, they’re going to focus on that piece of it, so triathlon would be the same.”
Lesley won the Bafta for Best Adapted Screenplay earlier this year for the remake of the 1930 war movie All Quiet On The Western Front, one of seven awards for the film. Last month she attended the Oscars after it got nine nominations.
She said: “Probably the best thing about all of these awards has been to get to meet some of my idols and other really top artists. All of them are so nice.
“You’re getting a hug from Cate Blanchett and then you’re chatting with Florence Pugh and hanging out with Phoebe Waller-Bridge. But by the time I got to the Oscars, I’d got somewhat used to that – you just treat them as real people because they are. So you have a chat and stop going, ‘This is Idris Elba’. You’re just having a chat.”
Cruise, 60, has starred as spy Ethan Hunt in a string of Mission: Impossible films over the past 25 years. He revealed that extreme sports such as sea-kayaking and caving help keep him fit.
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