WHEN Ana de Armas was spotted dining with Tom Cruise on Valentine's Day, the rumour mill naturally started turning.
But there was nothing romantic about the late-night get-together in London.
Instead, insiders say the 62-year-old Mission: Impossible actor is just the latest Hollywood great keen to appear alongside the Cuban-born actress.
Ana, 36, is known as the Leading Man Whisperer for her ability to get A-listers to appear alongside her.
Keanu Reeves and Chris Evans have both worked with her three times, while Daniel Craig, Adrien Brody and Ryan Gosling have shared the screen with her twice.
The only co-star she has become romantically involved with though is Ben Affleck after the pair fell for each other while making 2022 erotic thriller Deep Water.
Having started her career in Spanish cinema, Ana came to global attention as secret agent Paloma in 2021 Bond film No Time To Die.
She then secured an Oscar nomination for a controversial portrayal of Marilyn Monroe in 2022 film Blonde.
When you hang out with Ana, you feel like you're getting away with something, because she has this endlessly mischievous charm.
Source
This summer she is set to establish herself as an action star with the main role of an assassin in Ballerina, a spin-off to the John Wick series featuring Keanu.
A source who has worked with Ana tells The Sun: "Of course Tom Cruise wants to do a movie with her, she's successfully worked with almost every one of his rivals just over the last five or six years.
"And Ana also has that personality quirk, similar to Tom's exes Nicole Kidman and Penelope Cruz, where she doesn't give a flying f*** what people say about her or think about her."
Ana has certainly had to show guts and determination to get to this point.
She was born in 1988 in communist Cuba, where she was not allowed to watch Hollywood movies and did not have a telephone, DVD player or access to the internet.
Having decided to become an actress, she joined Cuba's National Theatre aged 14.
Travelling abroad is re-stricted in the repressive dictatorship, but thanks to her Spanish grandparents she was able to head for Madrid at the age of 18.
She became a celebrity in Spain thanks to her long-running part in popular TV series The Boarding School.
But it was after moving to Los Angeles in 2014 that she hit the big time
Our insider says: "Anna's been on a rocket ship in the business over the last ten years, primarily due to her easygoing personality and her incredible ability to work with these middle-aged, A-list leading men who just become totally captivated by her.
"You can legitimately call her The Leading Man Whisperer because she connects so well with these men, and some of them are 20 years older than she is."
Her first A-lister leading man was Keanu in 2015 thriller Knock Knock, which included the pair in a threesome.
The following year she was working with The Matrix actor again in detective movie Exposed — and he will be making a cameo in her John Wick spin-off.
Before arriving in the States, Ana had been married — and divorced — to Spanish actor Marc Clotet, 44. Their union lasted two years from 2011.
'Captivated by her'
It looked like Ana might walk down the aisle again quickly when she got engaged to Hollywood talent agent Franklin Latt in 2015, but the relationship ended before any vows were exchanged.
Her first genuine blockbuster came in 2017, playing Ryan Gosling's love interest in Blade Runner 2049.
The pair teamed up again in 2023 for Netflix action movie The Gray Man. She starred opposite Daniel Craig in 2019 comedy murder mystery Knives Out.
He praised her, saying "She's got the chops. She can do it all," which led to a part being written specifically for her in No Time To Die, Daniel's last outing as 007.
Ben Affleck, 52, wanted to be more than just a co-star after working with her on Deep Water in 2019.
The couple holed up together during the Covid lockdown, with the pair spotted kissing through their face masks during a romantic stroll.
By 2021 it was over and in 2023 she was seeing Paul Boukadakis, an executive at dating app Tinder.
Part of Ana's attraction — romantically and professionally in Tinseltown, is her down-to-earth attitude. She is not a prima donna and likes to have a laugh.
Our source says: "When you hang out with Ana, you feel like you're getting away with something, because she has this endlessly mischievous charm and a sense of humour. And she always lets you in on the joke.
"In real life, she's just not the femme fatale she sometimes plays in movies and has a very healthy attitude about all the Hollywood stuff going on around her.
"Even now as things seem to be moving towards a big new peak for her this year, she refuses to take herself too seriously and is the opposite of a control freak when she's on set."
'Some of that mojo'
Ana, who is an ambassador for Louis Vuitton jewellery, rarely posts messages on social media about her personal life and has largely avoided negative headlines.
The only time her choices have been questioned are when Monroe fans complained about the obsession with Marilyn's sex life in the graphic 2022 movie Blonde, produced by Brad Pitt, and again now over her current choice of boyfriend.
Some Cubans are not impressed that Ana has been seen out with lawyer Manuel Anido Cuesta, 27, who is the stepson of her homeland's President, Miguel Diaz-Canel.
In 2018 Manuel was seen dancing at a party with dictator Diaz-Canel, whose regime is said to have locked up hundreds of protesters since he took power in 2019.
On Monday Ana was spotted walking arm in arm with Manuel in Madrid, who would have been her true Valentine rather than Tom.
The fact she was sharing a platonic date with the Top Gun actor on that day gives a clue to how dedicated she is to networking.
There are few more powerful actors than Cruise.
Our source says: "Daniel Craig gives Ana a ton of credit for helping him find his comedic footing in Knives Out and I'm sure Tom Cruise wants some of that mojo to rub off on him."
However, there is no news of a formal collaboration between Tom and Ana.
And there is plenty of demand from elsewhere for her big-screen presence. Disney's Marvel studios are said to be keen for Ana to have a major role in their reboot of the Avengers superhero series.
If John Wick spin-off Ballerina is a hit when it is released in cinemas in June, even more producers will be after her.
Our insider adds: "Ballerina is going to be a big deal for her. She's never been the lead of a summer action blockbuster before, and the filmmakers have spent the year and a half since they shot the movie to tweak the action sequences to absolute perfection.
"There's a reason Keanu Reeves is making a guest appearance in that movie
"He's absolutely blown away by Ana's work and he insisted on showing up on camera to give her his John Wick seal of approval."
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