Speaking to the Daily Mail, the friend said: "She's very good at winning boys over. When I knew her she had everyone wrapped around her little finger and that must be a combination of her looks and personality.
"I know that her family have good connections and she used to say that she'd dated Theo Walcott's brother Ashley and knows the Walcotts well. Who wouldn't like to get married to a film star?"
Revealing an insight into Emily's character too, sources have speculated over whether Emily might be too career driven to get wed just yet.
One added: "She's worked on film sets for years but I wouldn't exactly call her career driven."
In Saturday's Daily Express newspaper, a second source gushed: "She is a lovely girl who is working hard to get on in the movie business. She is very conscientious and has done well to get as far as she has in such a short period of time."
The brunette is said to hail from a "very ordinary family", though she was raised in a £1.1million property in Hertfortshire, owned by her banker father, the newspaper claims.
James Fowler, Headmaster of Aldenham School, the Independent Boarding School that Emily attended, remembered her as an academic overachiever, especially in the field of athletics.
"She was just a delightful girl from a very nice, supportive, very ordinary family. I remember her as popular, outgoing and engaging pupil who was liked by everyone. She was a very good student."
Mr Fowler went on to describe Emily as a "terrific sportswoman".
After school, Emily went off to Quest Secretarial & Business Training where she completed a diploma before pursuing film.
Tom and Emily met when she was hired as Cruise's on-set assistant for Rogue Nation, the fifth installment of his Mission Impossible franchise, due out next week.
She will also join him on his next project, Mena.
They are rumoured to have been a couple since late last year, and while this has never been confirmed, it is reported plans are already being made for them to get married.
When news broke, early pictures suggested that there was something rather familiar about the leading lady in question.
Emily started working for Cruise only last year. And it's perhaps not difficult to see what drew him to her.
With dark brown hair and hazel eyes, she bears a striking resemblance to Cruise's most recent ex-wife, actress Katie Holmes.
A source told Star magazine, "Tom has fallen head over heels for Emily, and she feels the same way. There's even buzz in his inner circle that he might propose!"
