Julianne Hough has co-star Tom Cruise's no-nonsense attitude to thank for saving her dancing career - because he insisted on letting her rest after a serious spinal injury on the set of Rock Of Ages.
The Footloose star was ready to work through the pain after tweaking her neck and dislodging ribs following two days of extensive dancing with the Top Gun star - but Cruise insisted on shutting the sequence down.
Hough says, "I was practising this dance number with Tom for two days straight. I was totally fine and didn't hurt myself and it was, like, 18-hour days dancing hardcore. But the next day I turned my head and it went, 'Foo!'
"I was at the point where I had to lay on my back and just breathe. I couldn't turn my head; it was tilted to the left. Tom was really cool because I actually hurt myself. I'd never hurt myself or injured myself dancing and I tweaked my neck and had three ribs out on my left and three ribs out on my right, and my whole spine was like an 'S' and my hips were out of place.
"I've got that dancer mentality, like, 'I can keep going; I'm fine.' He's like, 'Julianne, this is what insurance is for. You've got a very long career ahead of you and a very long shoot ahead of you. Stop, and leave it to me.'
"I was like, 'Tom Cruise cares about me!' I had a Tom Cruise rescue."