Hayley Atwell has recently praised Tom Cruise for helping her overcome social anxiety in crowded place.
Speaking on the Reign with Josh Smith podcast, the Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning star revealed, “Social anxiety tends to be something that people talk about a lot at the moment… And how a lot of people do have social anxiety at some point.”
“The pep talk Tom gave me helps that, which is if you walk into a room and you feel the anxieties coming, and it makes me want to retreat into myself, I start to overthink, and go: ‘Do I look weird? Do I seem awkward?’” explained the 42-year-old.
Hayley told the host, “We go into ourselves, and Tom said, ‘Try doing the opposite. Try to look out, look around the room, and go, ‘Where is it? Where is the thing that I have attached to my insecurity?’”
The Ant-Man actress pointed out that the social anxiety “resides outside of me and, if I look at it for long enough, the anxiety then can have a name”.
“It can have a label or what will happen is, I’ll go: ‘Oh, you’re really jealous’ or ‘I’m really lonely’ or ‘I’m really intimidated by the talent or the confidence of that person,’” she mentioned.
Hayley continued, “As soon as I can name what it actually is, the general sense of free-floating anxiety goes and then I actually have an opportunity to do something about it.”
“So, Tom was just like: ‘If you are scared of something just keep looking at it. Just try not to close your eyes or turn away. Just keep looking at it and it will often give you information about what to do to overcome it,’” added the actress.
