Maggie Q: Tom Cruise, Bruce Willis are 'completely different' types of action stars

The actress Maggie Q joins Yahoo Entertainment's Kevin Polowy for a look back on her biggest roles so far. Q, who starred in back-to-back summer blockbusters — "Mission: Impossible III" in 2006, alongside Tom Cruise, and "Live Free or Die Hard" in 2007, alongside Bruce Willis — describes what it was like to work with each leading man.

Video Transcript

KEVIN POLOWY: "Mission-- Impossible" was obviously-- it feels like a big turning point.

- Do it.

KEVIN POLOWY: What do you remember about connecting with Tom?

MAGGIE Q: From go, I mean, my experience with him-- people can say what they want, you know, based on their experience. It's their right to. But certainly for me, I mean, I have only ever had positive experiences with Tom, and from go, it was warm.

It was inclusive. And mind you, on that movie, I was at the bottom of the call sheet, right? So we had Billy, Phil, Ving, Fish. Keri and Michelle were newer, but they were still doing stuff, you know? So I was really like the lowest.

And Tom, I'll never forget, went out of his way to make sure that I never felt that way. And that, to me, was so-- it was so huge because it is the opposite with people at his level. They don't want you to feel special or included, right?

It's like, that little bit of intimidation maybe feeds them somewhere. And they're OK with that, and it's worked for them, and that's fine. But that's not the way he worked.

KEVIN POLOWY: Yeah, well, similarly with Bruce Willis, people have had different experiences, but I don't think we can send good vibes to him right now, you know?

MAGGIE Q: Sure, sure, sure.

KEVIN POLOWY: What was your experience like with Bruce?

MAGGIE Q: It's just different. I mean, Tom has an enthusiasm that is second to none. And what's interesting about that enthusiasm is that it is genuine.

He loves the work. And there's no way you get to his level and you perform at the level that he does without loving it. They're just-- there just isn't.

And so with Bruce, I think by the time I worked with Bruce, you're talking about a franchise star who has already been there and done it a million times. And he didn't have the same enthusiasm as Tom, you know? He's more of the laid back kind of cool guy and, like-- you know?

And it's a great experience, and it's a different experience. But it's less of like, I'm going to scream from the mountaintops how great this experience is, and it's more like, yeah, like, come on, guys. Let's get the work done.

Let's-- come on. Let's do this. You know, so it's just-- the vibe is completely different. Yeah.