Betty: This movie sure has a lot of stunts. Did you have to do anything like your co-star, Tom Cruise?
Thandie: There was one dangerous one, but it was up to me and they had asked me at the beginning of the film if I would do it. I didn't have too. But I agreed, and then they scheduled it for the very last day of the shoot, which I thought was a little bit suspect. Other than that, I just left it up them. I mean, you have things like insurance and so on.

Betty: Oooh, that's a relief - not! You also have a gnarly high speed chase scene. Is it true you're not a really good driver, or is it you don't like driving?
Thandie: I hate to drive - and bad as a result. I don't concentrate and I forget that the car is actually in my control. Do you know what I mean? And in the film it was so difficult. I only had to do one small bit...other than that you're doing the scene and the camera's there, and you're on the back of the truck...So I played the whole scene not even looking at the road - well, which is like my driving anyway.

Betty: Obviously, you don't drive on LA freeways.
Thandie: No, I don't. But it's actually not bad driving here, because you always have automatic cars and the roads are quite wide, and if you're not on the freeway, you can drive quite slowly.

Betty: Oh, that's you going 25MPH! What about the steering wheel being on the left side?
Thandie: That's ok. No it's fine. But I'm warning you, I am out there on the road!

Betty: Since we're covering all the bases, we might as well get kissing Tom Cruise out of the way. Just another day at the office?
Thandie: It's very basic, really. You know, if you do the same thing over and over again, or if you say the same word over and over again, you start wondering what all the fuss is about. It's slightly icky, and it's sort of wet, and nonsense, and it was fine. The thing I actually found quite irritating was that you really couldn't just do it - feel the feelings and deal with all that stuff - because you have to worry about getting a double chin if you move your head down. I couldn't really go for it because I'd squash his face sideways. So you actually end up just touching lips, and you're not actually thinking about kissing, you're thinking, "Is my face in the right place? Is my hair there? Oh my God you can see my nipple?" You know, all those things are going on.

Betty: Did you pop a certs before the scene or a breathalizer or anything?
Thandie: Always. Always, yes, I think I do. I once did a film with this guy and we were doing a kissing scene...and there was a voice-over during the snugging...we call it "snugging" in England...where she's thinking about how disgusting it is that his tongue is so far into her mouth - and he really had to be forcing his tongue into my mouth and for quite a long time. Well, I saw him walking to the set from the craft service eating a sausage! What could I say? Ever since then I've actually been very assertive, and if I'm about to do something with the other actor, I'll have a sniff and ask them if they've sorted themselves out. You've got to!

Betty: And how's Tom? Was he…
Thandie: Always very fresh and clean. [laughs]

Betty: This may sound shallow, but it's actually quite a compliment. So many people after the screening that we saw were like, "Thandie is just so beautiful on screen." I mean absolutely beautiful on screen, which you are...
Thandie: That's not shallow!

Betty: Well, this is this is the shallow part; What do you do? Do you just eat anything that you want to? Or are you really particular about your skin and your health and all that good stuff?
Thandie: My skin was all right until I got pregnant, and then I broke out into terrible teenage acne. I sort of hid away in my house for two months. My husband had to drag me out to go anywhere. You go through these phases, I went through phases where I thought I had to be really careful all the time and be a bean pole. But now I just do whatever.

Betty: You don't have any like special regimen that you use?
Thandie: No I don't. I really don't and also I'm pregnant, so all regimes go out the window. I went to go see a nutritionist because I wanted to make sure I was doing all the right things, and I wish to God I hadn't gone into that room. Because of course I didn't do anything that he wanted. You do whatever your body tells you to do. And that's been quite liberating actually.

Betty: When are you due?
Thandie: September.

Betty: Is this going to be a defining moment in your career? Will you be able to just take time off?
Thandie: I just think that we'll see what happens. There are two of us taking care of things so we'll see how we go. And I think what we'd like to do is just try and balance it so that we both are able to carry on with our careers and take care of our kids in a way that doesn't stop either of us from enjoying both of those things. And if I can make a film a year I'd be really delighted, but if that doesn't happen I think that what I would be doing is even more rewarding.

Betty: How does he feel, by the way, when you say, "Honey, I was in bed all day with Tom Cruise."?
Thandie: I think he feels quite sympathetic. You know, all day long, God. Quite honestly he just waits to find out if I'm okay, and that's the most important thing. If I've had a bad time of it, then he's really sympathetic. He doesn't get so overcome with jealously, I mean we trust each other. And it's one of those jobs too, where if you start having problems with it, you're really entering a really bad piece of territory because, you just have to be very sure about each other I think. And we're lucky that we are, so it's not an issue.