The Weeknd credits Tom Cruise lip sync with helping him early in his career

The Weeknd has hailed Tom Cruise for helping score a huge hit during the early part of his career.

• READ MORE: ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’ review: a fitting farewell to Tom Cruise’s all-action hero

The Mission: Impossible star took part in a lip sync battle on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon back in 2015, when he took on Abel Tesfaye’s ‘Can’t Feel My Face’ from his second album ‘Beauty Behind The Madness’.

At the time Cruise praised the singer as being “enormously talented” before launching into his performance of the track.

It helped the song score The Weeknd his first Number One hit on the Billboard Hot 100.

“I definitely saw that. It actually helped the song,” The Weeknd told Fallon in a new interview, who has still to this day never met Cruise. “It helped it peak to the record-breaking top, thanks to him obviously. To the biggest movie star in the world.”

He continued: “I’m a huge Tom Cruise guy. I love The Color Of Money, love Vanilla Sky, Eyes Wide Shot, Magnolia and Mission Impossible.”

When asked if Cruise knew he was a fan, The Weeknd said: “I don’t think he does but he did that for me. That like it wasn’t a favour, I didn’t know [him].”

He then joked as a return favour, that he would a promote a bit of Mission Impossible. Tesfaye then whipped on a cap of the latest movie The Final Reckoning‘s logo and read out of his own promotion card for the film.

The final part in the franchise scored a four star review from NME which described it “as a fitting farewell to Tom Cruise’s all-action hero.” It added: “There’s ultimately lots to love about Final Reckoning and if this is the end, Cruise and Co are finishing on a high. It’s just a shame it takes so long to get going.”

The movie was also greeted with a five-minute standing ovation upon its premiere at Cannes.

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