Tom Cruise flashes Hollywood smile for ex-Kimberlite

WILDLIFE photographer Gillian Leigh Soames (nee Askew-Hull), who matriculated from Kimberley Girls’ High School in 1989, has had the pleasure of seeing Hollywood A-lister Tom Cruise flying past her home at the Hoedspruit Wildlife Estate on a daily basis.

The film crew is currently in South Africa to film Mission Impossible 8, where Cruise is staying a stone’s throw from Soames’ house near the Blyde River Canyon.

Soames, who is an avid leopard snapper, gave Cruise a warm South African welcome by lifting up her shirt and “flashing” him as a joke when he flew past her house. The helicopter apparently flashed its lights back at her.

“Since then we regularly wave at each other when he passes by,” said Soames.

“I am an insurance broker and my family and I have been living on the estate since the national lockdown. The chopper flies past our house every morning and evening.”

Soames added that Cruise’s security guards had permitted her to take some photographs from a safe distance.

“The security was very accommodating. I was going through some of the videos and photos while seated in my vehicle when a contingent of guards approached me. I was dreading having to delete all the footage and climbed out of my car. I was surprised when they thanked me for enjoying the moment without invading his privacy, as his fans usually swarm him.”