The actress dished about the amusing story during an appearance on the "Smartless" podcast, which is cohosted by Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes. They went through highlights of her career, and along the way ... they stopped at "Edge of Tomorrow."

Emily recounted her experience with the massive metal suits that her and Tom's characters wear throughout the movie, which were actually pretty damn heavy and hard to use in real life.

It was so difficult, in fact, that EB says she was freaking out about it -- breaking down on set and even crying at one point because she felt she wouldn't be able to proceed with the shoot ... which she says left Tom at a loss for words, as he didn't really know what to do.

Eventually, the words came to him. She says he bent down and said, "Come on. Stop being such a p***y, okay?" Emily says she laughed at that, and got it together to get the job done.