Tom Cruise gave producer strict rule for 'nightmare' Olympics 2024 stunt

Mission Impossible actor Tom Cruise delivered a stunt to remember at the Olympics closing ceremony - but now his creative director and executive producer Ben Winston has admitted that it was a "nightmare" negotiating all the logistics that went along with it.

Tom had insisted on being hands-on and jumping off the roof himself, rather than leaving it to a professional stunt double - so it was high energy from everyone involved.

"[When I initially pitched the stunt to Tom], I told him, it was a man in a balaclava who jumped from the roof of the stadium," he recalled. "Tom’s feedback was, 'I love the idea, only we’re not doing a stuntman in a balaclava. I’m going to be the one who jumps off the roof, and I’m going to be the one who drives through Paris.'"

He continued to The Hollywood Reporter: "You forget what a nightmare it was. I feel like live television might be that. You forget how much you go through."

Despite the strife, there's no doubt that Ben enjoys working with Tom - not least because they've achieved stunts together before. His production company, which also worked on The Grammys and launched hit TV show The Kardashians, famously sent James Corden into the air in a vintage plane, piloted by none other than Tom.

Ben recalled at the time that James had been "really afraid" - and had even sent an email to him begging to get out of it on account of having a wife and three children.

Tom, on the other hand, is a seasoned daredevil who's no stranger to leaping out of aeroplanes and, in one heart-thudding performance, even scaling the Burj Khalifa.

Ben has worked with numerous other stars and even produced the London-based show An Audience with Adele to show off the impressive vocals of Britain's best-known songstress.

However, his music video with Harry Styles took just three hours, whereas he worked with Tom on painstakingly perfecting every last detail for the Olympics for 18 months.

Ben revealed that one of the "only things" that was fake about the shoot was the flag, a fact which enabled them to keep the nature of their project secret from everyone.

He held a white flag instead of an Olympics one, so that members of the press assumed he was filming for Mission Impossible - not the Olympics.

Fans were suitably surprised when they caught sight of him whisking away the flag from the French capital all the way to Hollywood.

Express.co.uk previously told of the "frenzy" his stunt had sparked - although some disappointed fans who'd heard he would be there initially demanded to know where he was.

Little did they know how worth the wait his jaw-dropping efforts would prove to be.