‘Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part One’ Cast on Working with Tom & Future of the Franchise

the world is changing truth is Vanishing War to describe in your words the Tom Cruise run because it is stuff of Legends so how would you each describe it I would just I watched him a lot because I was like what is this what is going on there seems to be a direct correlation with how much he runs in the film and the success of the overall film yeah I would love to see this man yes he does and what I think it is is yes he's fast that's not the interesting thing watching him run in real life and it transmits on screen he runs with every cell in his body and it's like he's either getting away from a bear like it's almost Primal caveman energy um but or it's running to something that he's gonna kind of save and it's it I think also his running becomes the metaphor of his approach to anything movie related he puts absolutely everything into it and I think it's that that's the thing that you feel because anyone can kind of run fast on screen and be made to look like they're running even faster if they need to but there's something about the way that he studied the form that you can see that it has so much of energy and power in it and he doesn't miss close-ups too even as it is acting what you're saying about it's every cell even like a twinkle in his eyes something yeah everything's awake yeah just so present I think it is isn't that just so totally present to the present moment right there he's with you even when we were at dinner last night he's just with you you know he's not anywhere else it's like you float off into themself to be able to be in the moment and stay in the moment um your first time in the movie I I it's my understanding that during the audition process it was a lengthy process and it was more about like creating those moments and even in the filming and that you were put through these physical tests were you can you describe a little bit about that process because it sounds so unique to what auditioning is usually like yeah um well Christopher Macquarie would see me in a play 10 years ago and took me out for dinner and said I want to work with you I want to find the character that bottles the thing that I know that you can do on that stage cut to 10 years later and he brings me in to meet Tom for this and there was about 10 pages of dialogue that I'd learned for it that he'd he'd written that we knew wouldn't be in the film but it would just be a sort of an introduction to working with each other and it very quickly it felt like a we were workshopping it it didn't feel like it was I was standing there and I did a reading and tried a different way and thank you very much for the time we'll be in contact it was do one where you're more you're withholding information now do one where you're totally oblivious to anything going on around you and you think you're just having a nice time um now let's maybe try one we just throw out that bit of dialogue and come up with something else and then we look at playback and we look what what the lighting and the composition of the frame was revealing about equality in my personality on on screen and what they felt that that might translate as a character in this franchise and then there was of course the physical side of things where they were testing to see kind of how quickly I could learn fight choreography and then uh and sort of an evaluation of where they thought my natural skill set lay and where I could get to with the right training um and again you know because because Chris McCrory and Tom are such students of film they're fascinated by the process and with everyone incredibly inclusive of every side of filmmaking from the technical aspect as well as the acting so I already felt from day one this was going to be a collaborative process so I got a follow-up to that what is your skill set naturally as a fighter and did you bring your ventriloquist skills into the audition the thing that I felt was very clear was partly because of my theatrical background props for me are key to use a very important word in the movie they are key in they're an extension of how she expresses herself in the world how she feels about certain things and certain people and so when I was doing fight choreography if you gave me a knife I could learn it faster my brain actually worked better if I had something I was holding as opposed to just physically doing a routine without it and that's also where the sleight of hand tricks came in as well um and then the other thing which was a total surprise to me was drifting drifting was the thing that became I became proficient in because it for some bizarre reason I took to it quite well um total surprise so we never did the room I accept this mission that never happened in one take you're like no um for you the last film there was more fighting I feel like this one was more character driven and I kept thinking to myself as I was watching the film who is she channeling like was there somebody that you were channeling something and then I also heard that Christopher McCrory had you read books on Power and sort of embracing that power so as somebody who doubts themselves how do you how did you sort of what did you take away from those books the book was really interesting it was it was mostly saying that power doesn't need to assert itself it's actually is more um magnetic as in you have to attract the sensation rather than put it out you put it out it suggests that there's a kind of um a need to prove and that isn't powerful so uh everything we talked about you know I watched people like Lauren McCall and those actresses who were just so they have such a potency really and they're not doing too much they just have this presence so it was much more about doing less and um you know even when I tried takes in Fallout that were more fueled with a kind of anger or something it just lost the um the command somehow so that was the was the key to it I think have you seen the Philadelphia Story without burning yeah you talk about all your power right right exactly that that is a hundred percent one of those um asking also everybody today if there was a stunt of TOMS you have to choose one from the franchise that you had to do which one would you choose what was it the one that we were talking about earlier with on The Wire I think of the first one um the zip wire is there on the first very first movie where he goes down I know the names of it in the white room yeah that one I think it's like exactly because if you fall you're not falling very fast unless the wire yeah that's true but um that's you know the the the least of the the evils of his stunts I think the halo jump I think I've skydived a little bit um a few times and I love it so that was really that was I just killed to do that wow you I mean that to me sounds like I don't know how to hang up we were discussing the building the heights you know that's not for for us no is this the first time you worked together yeah for you the train sequence can you describe the zero G's how does that feel how is it shot like a little bit of a breakdown from your perspective as an actress yeah I mean like everything in the film everything is meticulously planned and is built up too so it becomes a sensation in my body that I'm familiar with as opposed to you know the first time that I have that experience it's your body's going what is going on and it goes into a little bit of you know adrenaline and so after that you'll when you do it a second time your body's like okay I'm familiar with this and so it's it's easier as you go on like anything like skydiving would be too um and yeah um it's so fun to watch that because it's it's a different Dynamic within the Train the train itself is another character the Fiat 500 is another character so to have a design of these different carriages having different worlds like you have the kitchen Carriage the piano bar the dining room carriage and they all have their own obstacles and things that each character has to overcome and help each other overcome um you know and so much of the physical quality comes out of that yeah what is the most like where your stomach is like a little is it the drifting or is it the zero G's is it no it's um there was a vertical train rig that goes from uh vertical to horizontal insects six seconds and we had to do that multiple times and hit a certain Mark and hang from it um that is uh that was you know it over time because we did it so many times that's when it becomes more and more challenging to sustain that level of sprinting inclining and then there was another part where he says on the train Carriage you know do you trust me and I didn't act that I just went no and then oh I guess I should be saying yes and then yes and we they use that in the film and it was just before I meant to jump across the train Carriage as the the piano comes crashing down on me um and it's that feeling of if there is any time to think about what you're doing that can actually paralyze you wow and so the more time I had to think the the scarier it was but again with Tom if he just he's so Fearless that if you just not don't think about it and let go into the process you know that you're going to be held you're always going to be safe wow that question for you I read that you said that Tom is that person that makes you bring out your own mission and feel like you can do anything in your life what is what is it that you now feel like is your mission because of because of that experience um yeah I think the all the examples um of how he goes beyond the limit of what most people would ever attempt to it's kind of that it's what are your what's the edge that you think oh I couldn't I don't know if I could go past that or because you said self-doubt um for me I guess it was yeah it was just knowing when you see Tom who's such a cinephile and care about Cinema so much and as act as you do you know you grow up in films it's like changed my life and it is my life and I just love nothing more and um I suppose it's to kind of go beyond the uh the Realms of what I think is possible in that and there's been a couple of films I've done since the first mission and I know that the ability to kind of believe in being able to do that you know I had to give birth and I hadn't given birth before and it was just terrified me like jumping off a cliff I just it was felt like that because I thought if I get this wrong I'm actually getting it wrong on behalf of every woman that's done it you know and that felt yeah I didn't know if I could do it but I just sort of thought well you know Tom can put his life in danger every single day I can maybe like manage to do that that's an example of the limit and so I kind of try and apply that now in different areas [Music] I just want to start things off I'm asking everybody today can you both describe the Tom Cruise run from your opinion when I was making the World's End in a couple of long time ago now 10 years ago now I called Tom to say I'm about to do his Running Scene I had to Sprint down the street and I said what have you got any tips and I he said keep your arms pumping your head high no keep your knees High your arms pumping and you head forward and that was the that's the rule I mean that's the way but also I would say I mean when I see it it's also about the hand position you know you're not like this and you're not like relaxed you yeah did you do that in your run in the world I did and I actually became 32 faster Is that real wow I am making up but it's funny that's amazing I'm not making up about the idea I did call him about the right time yeah but he he's just you know sprinting is very good for you and I think that's part of the reason he looks like he does at 60. yeah no very very true I don't know how he does it in between doing all this dance um you are such a wonderful addition to this franchise oh thank you you are such a wonderful addition to this franchise four films five six films um can you talk a little bit about becoming this character because when I was watching you and tell me if I'm wrong I thought she's channeling an animal I don't know which animal it was it was so beautiful how do you know did you hear about that no I told people about that it's called the shoe Bill stork or the shoe Bill I've seen that thing with the big it's a crazy animal that is prehistoric bird and that looks insane and I would watch videos of the bird I was like this is me and the bird is like slowly moving and just I'm gonna look at the camera like this thing and then staring like and in the movie I stare a lot actually so it works it does was the makeup was that part you or was that written in the script no the makeup um was um so it made sense oh when I did it yeah because people were supposed to wear masks the other people were going to a party and then people ended up not wearing a mask so I look a little bit insane but I like looking insane anyway um no it was inspired by um you know it was my idea um you know a character from Comedy I mean we're in Italy so I'm supposed to have the accent um and you know with a teardrop there was like a side of it there was a little bit um melancholic you know a thought fitted the character and um and also there's like a side of it that was like a little bit I could pantomime so a bit like a creepy and weird and eerie and I thought that with this fight scene it would look cool and because like everything was everything was dark you know because it's a night time so I thought that would like bring some light to the face as well and also with the sweat it would be like a little bit like weird and it would look like a monster and and actually it worked I could never look like a monster no but you just did it I was just like oh I felt like you could turn your head on this axis there for a second it's good luck next movie maybe there I know you're both in the middle of filming so for you sir I made a connection every film you get a hero shot in Fallout you got a big beautiful backlit shot where you came in on the boat and you were the hero for that moment you get it again at the Coliseum talk about Benji having his hero moments now he's really evolved he has well you know he was a kind of little lab technician in the third one and he's gone from being a sort of puppy dog to a much more mature member of the team and yeah I he always gets his his little moment and he's always there he's kind of like you know that they're really strong woman behind the successful husband and that's what Benji is and McHugh's always really great at making sure personally I think he does this for every single character in this film that's one thing we thought when we watched it was that everybody has their moment you know and there's a beautiful moment I love the shot of I won't I know no spoilers but there's a wonderful shot of palm where she sits down and her hands sort of retract it's it's he's so good at making sure every character feels sort of um serviced in a way and I think you bring it every character brings her a lot of empathy to the movie as well that he's really needed and especially action movies like that you know what's funny is I had the question and I you know this go watching these films why does he stay why every time Ethan says you know we're gonna do this you just you follow him no matter how crazy yeah and then you get your moment of why in this film yes absolutely yeah where the AI informs why and it's the most poignant movie so can you talk about that line and delivering that line was that a lot of takes was it yeah there's a lot of well there's a lot of kind of um Mission Impossible is is always about the team you know even though Ethan's there at the Forefront and the team and what the team mean to each other and what friendship means and that that that the weight of friendship these are all as you learn in this film anyone that's in the IMF has made a choice at some point in their life to do so because they have been in a position where they don't really have much choice to do anything else other than you know an alternative kind of Fate which isn't so nice so Benji chose to be in the IMF and him and he and Ethan and Luther are very good friends and and he's jab Benji is tested you know in this film to to reveal what is the most important thing to him and he has to say his friends and and that just UPS the ante on it in terms of all the stakes you know because if if any of us lose each other it's going to impact very hard so I want to talk about your brutal I wrote the words brutal in my screen and my screening for your fight scene with Tom like it was one of the most brutal fight scenes I think of the entire series can you just talk about pummeling Tom first of all we call it pummeling not pummeling pummeling oh my gosh oh this is a new thing we have to coin them when she beats you up which she does quite regularly uh we get pummeled I thought it was gonna be the Pom-Pom show but apparently you you went up to me that's even better it's the pomeling so yes how if you can just talk about how many days that was the process of filming it how incredible it was and is it kind of fun to just unleash it was so much fun uh it was um we took I mean I I rehearsed for months and months uh we Shot the movie for I mean I I was out of my home like for almost like longer than a year and we shot the fight scene at the end of the the shoot so you know and we you know it was like very technical too because like the um the alleyway was very narrow so we needed to find a place to put the cameras to light it properly uh for the the kicks um the the hits to be shown and uh but it was incredible you know like Tom Works in such detail you know with such Precision you know and and for him and it's why the Mission Impossible movies are so incredible to um with the action it's not about the choreography and about the movements it's about um the characters and what happens between them and what the the fight tells and how the audience feels about it so sometimes what is mo more interesting in them in the fight is actually the moments in between the hits when the characters are tired when one of the characters is down and looking up and wanting to give up but still fights and all these bits you know that really create emotions you know so it was incredible to watch him work and to get to to do that scene with him and I kept asking him to like just like hit me in in here like you know to kick me because I was like squeezing my abs like no no because he's such a gentleman he wouldn't do it but you know I've been training for a long time I was like just like ah let's go he was like no no of course uh but you know I'm not saying that you have to hit each other when you do fight scenes but just a little bit of contact if it's controlled it helps with the scene I think but yeah you know anyways we had a blast it's my understanding that Christopher actually changed shots around because of what you were doing that he actually went oh no this is really interesting and actually really changed what he was planning because you were doing so many incredible interesting things oh thank you yeah um I'll just sort of end this on if there is a stunt of Toms that you had to do what would be the stunt from all of the franchise we had like Gunter had had to do you have to do don't pick an easy one from like one two or three no well I mean I'll tell you what one of the stuns it gets uh that doesn't always get um the love because it was a smaller one but the fish tank's done from one is incredible because that was real all that water was coming down when he's running beautiful but I think for sheer fun I would like to do the Burj Khalifa climb you know when he's on the building yes because I mean I remember he had such fun doing that you know he was just smiling his head off and I and other stuff like when he did the plane and when he did the bike stunt he was very focused very concentrated because but on that Burj Khalifa stunt he was just like a kid in a candy shop just crawling around like Spider-Man when no one talks about is the landing of the plane start they talk about the taking off but the landing yeah it doesn't land I I watch that it doesn't what about for you I mean I would love to to skydive because he introduced me to skydiving and I love it and we even like jumped together so that would be so much fun and also I'm obsessed with horses as you know I'm obsessed with horses so I would love to do like one of the Galloping in the desert like super fast with a horse it would be awesome there's always eight Palm a horse in Norway called lucky and I think we should just give him a shout out yeah we love you lucky we love you lucky lucky I miss you thank you bro he's a fjord horse he's so cute he's like a bunny but he's like super strong usually they're like pretty lazy the pure horses this one goes so fast so would you say I would just go for a ride sir I could talk [Music] [Laughter] go super fast and you never stop and he was like so hardcore that I would have like blisters you need to tell Christopher to write lucky into the next film I met a horse he's amazing but I think he looks too cute for a Villain Like Me it's been a long time Family you have no idea the power I represents how did you get the call for this I have no idea what do you mean I it was a cold call it wasn't even an audition it was how soon can you get on a plane to London and I said why there's interest in you for Mission Impossible I'm like the movie with Tom yeah and it was like you know thank you and um we had a good conversation with Christopher Macquarie and somehow uh the Stars aligned for me what did he tell you about we tell you he hits he had seen me in another project and he felt that I I was possibly the right person for this role because of the gravitas the danger The lethality I mean no one can speak as well as Chris Macquarie I I can't even like he has a way with words unlike anyone else that I've met and whether it's on the spot or written down on paper like thought he is he's a poet and a real Craftsman so I just talking to him for two hours on a zoom call was fascinating we went over so many things and he's about to I'll I said I'm a team player I said whatever you need he goes well this is not you know your contempt your average conventional filmmaking we move we do things it's it's not the average you know way you make movies can you hang with that and I was like yes sir how would you ever say no so how different was it an experience because they almost work backwards in the sense that they find what works with an actor with a shot and then they build the story around it that's right well the thing is that they know movies so well that they can actually they know a sequence that you might think you've seen it before like oh we've seen a train fight before but then they look for ways to make it something you haven't seen before Thrills angles you know I mean from you know everyone from John frankenheimer to David lean is like nodded to in these movies so if you really know film you'll understand it and if you don't know film you'll just be in awe of of like the immersive nature of this film which is why it's important to see it on a big screen it's important to just go there and let yourself be transported what because we all hear the word villain right so you as an actor do you feel a pressure or how do you find your way in because there's like we always talk about the quote-unquote villain in the film right so it has to match the hero or else yeah absolutely I think your Heroes the more formidable a foe your your hero has the bigger the mountain and um you can't have a hill you need something ferocious and for me it's about tapping into the pain in my life tapping into the times where I've had to draw deep and it's serious stuff and I think that Macquarie and Tom know how to capture that and edit it and put it all together in a way that leaves a lasting impact the movie is haunting the character I play is haunting I play it tied to his past at Tom's of Ethan Hunt's past and as I've said a couple of times I think nobody can threaten your future more than somebody who knows your past did you spend any time with Thomas something you do well the thing is that you know I talked to the director more and then Tom comes in and he fine-tunes he's he has an eye come on the guy's been doing this at such a high level for so long he knows what works with the audience he knows and it's funny too I loved watching the fun aspects so for me this is a dream come true what is the stun of Tom's that you wish you could do that you would like to try where can I start that motorcycle jump is something that must be extremely exuberating I mean think about it you're on a motorcycle you're flying through the air and then you let go the only thing that was keeping you on the ground and then you fly I mean I can't think of anything closer to being a bird and then you land hopefully that's the key there's so much danger there's so many pitfalls so many things could go wrong and he does it and he does it so well that I just wish I had wings like he does in this movie they're wrapping me thank you so much no thank you and I made sure you watch it July 12th let's break some records let's break some records that's that's my dream listen to me the world's coming after you this is a very dynamic duo did you did Tom give you guys like an idea like this is sort of the idea of what we want for these guys that the chemistry between the two of you to be I think that grew organically honestly I don't think it was a set plan of like hey this is what we're doing and this is how y'all have the behave I think uh outside of filming we grew this Bond and me just learning from Shea which he's a fantastic actor obviously he has this long career but I just you know fed off of him on camera and I was like okay this is how it goes and he was very courteous not not to like say hey this is how you should do it but just like you know giving me his his point of view on things and I'm like oh that's interesting and he would also take my life oh I love what you did there and then it would give him something to play off of as well so it was it was a you know match made our character is very conflicted and there's a moment in the film without spoilers that you could go one way and you go another way and I was very surprised yeah I mean you look this thing is fun it's big it's entertainment but it but also these guys McHugh and Tom I always say them together they're looking for story they're looking for characters that you care about you know what I mean so even when he and I were building this relationship the things that I wouldn't I wouldn't tell him you know what I mean and just so that so that and then you you know you want things to just evolve like you said organically and they did did you call your Top Gun castmates and say hi I'm the one back I'm the one back no no no no honestly so when I when I got the job I was told I couldn't say anything and I'm I'm a stickler when it comes to I don't no one knows what's going on in the film not I might keep my mouth shut and uh I didn't tell them that I was in the film at all they found pictures because you know fans would take pictures and it was like Tarzan is this you they come in a group message and I'm like no you already know it's you so I didn't tell him anything if you didn't even tell your castmates no no so when you got to tell them what was their what was the announcement like yeah uh well they were peed off that I didn't shared with them and they had to find out on their own and it was just like surprise guys I'm here I love it so I've been asking everybody today which of Tom stunts you most want to do from the franchise but I think in your case I'm going to ask you both to invent his stunt that you would both like to do in the next mission Impossible film as a Duo if you can oh man if we were in the next one and you got to do a brilliant stuff that if we got to do the next mission Impossible film um dang that's a good one what would be the stunt uh I don't know I think I'd use that backdrop right behind us right there so you would come back to home is what you're saying try to jump between I do like a nice foot chase over the beautiful buildings right there maybe you know something I would like that I wonder if they can invent jet packs or something I would I would say let's let's do some jet packing all right so which one are you doing from the previous yeah that's a that's a good one I know what are you gonna do oh from any of the Physicians I would do the uh when he climbs on the Burj Khalifa because he was like Spider-Man and I really want to like do that that was so cool never been done before fly out the window face first fly out the window for oh oh and you know what you know what what if you know you break the window and you fly out and have the 30 to uh parachute and you have to put it on before hitting the ground and then letting it go that would be the stunt I would want to do so you're combining two stunts yes being innovative I I love when he's hanging off the side of the plane and then it takes off I that's one that I I still can't get over when I see you know I love that one you know I think that's something that I could maybe do you know what I mean that would be that'd be cool last question what is one thing that you can do now because of this training like how intense was this training and what is something that you're super capable of now that you couldn't do before and how did it compare to the topic oh uh what I can do now is uh um I can ride motorcycles I wasn't necessarily the best at it I'm really good at it now um and compared to Top Country Top Gun was its own thing where we had to learn how to fly planes and get into F-18 and I say that so casually like oh I've learned everything um that was one thing but with this one we had to learn an array of skills uh so it was more daunting because you have non-stop like this this this this this so uh which one is harder I don't know I can't put a channel a difficulty level on it but it was intense I missed driving be able to drive you know uh with Wade Eastwood and I I love it I can't I can't get enough of that he didn't know how to drive at first uh drifting and all that I to me it was one of the great things about this was to be able to them and trust me to do all the driving we did a ton of it I mean a ton of it through these streets and with cameras mounted four cameras mounted I could barely see and you know it was to me it was it was I was like a kid in a candy store someone just broke into a car yeah somebody's about to go dripping this fader's written shall we write yours too if anything there's no place that I won't go to kill you that is right now after every Mission Impossible movie the very first screening yes Tom leans over and Whispers in your ear and says we can do better I was hoping you were going to do it your best Tom Cruise voice that was as good as I could do that's as good as I can do it that is amazing to me and if it was any other actor saying that I would be like well that's insulting but with Tom he actually does it and you actually do it and I didn't think you could top fall out and you did wow thank you so how the heck do you top yourself what what practically when he says that what does that mean for you as a director that means we take everything we learn from what we've just done and we apply it to the next thing and really everything we've learned in everything we've done together and everything we've done separately uh We're Never Satisfied we're looking at those sequences and and there's there's what you dream of the sequence being and then there's what you ultimately end up with yeah we don't settle for that we're looking at it and saying now okay we could have done better how do we how do we apply it so you're what you're seeing in uh in dead reckoning part one is uh if everything we learned from previous motorcycle stunts everything we learned from previous skydiving gags now we put the motorcycle in the skydiving together I see what you did there uh yeah and uh and and sequences we've always dreamed of doing we're talking about things long in advance we've been talking about some sort of base jump for a long time we were talking about some sort of sort of a train sequence some sort of a submarine sequence for a long long time and you just they eventually just percolate to the surface so for you as you know when you're setting up your shots how does that actually look because the the helicopter sequences in Fallout were incredible so visceral but I feel like this is the first film where I felt like I was inside the film instead of watching it yeah so for you like when you're doing the zero g scene how are you improving on yourself in terms of your where you're putting your shots in that more and more it is about uh the the emotion that I'm that I'm after is in the frame it's not about watching people have an emotional experience it's framing it in an emotional way putting the camera in such a place where I feel it before we put the actors in before we and before we call Action that was really something that evolved for me during Fallout where I realized even a shot of of a of a key you have to feel it it's got to be done in such a way that it gives you an emotional reaction instead of just being information so you've teased that both of these films are mods how are they going to differentiate themselves I read something about this one's sort of simmering and then the next one is just going to be Bonkers yeah you're it's it's a Continuum the story is growing from a from from the beginning of act one of part one you feel an escalation throughout the movie that escalation continues in in part two it's not a reset it it takes off right from there will the tone feel the same or will it feel a little bit it's hard to say I would tell you I would I would not be cheeky I would tell you if I knew I they're such organic things that uh we tend to go where where the emotions take us I know from the things I've already shot that they're they are similar enough but they've the same way that we apply everything we've learned we've been doing that in real time to the second movie yeah I know you've only shot a part of it I want to go to your camera time in the featurette of the jump yes some Beautiful Moments there sir and I know they were very real can you describe jump one because you kind of held your breath for that one and then after that you were a little bit more celebratory but that feeling as I'm sure his stomach is going how is it for you um you well we practiced the stunt many many times you've seen the featurette we were in a quarry he had a cable between two cranes and it was all that was all a camera test that was really just to find a place to put the camera and it was for Tom to develop the sense of the of the bike the wind speed because he couldn't be looking at a speedometer we were eliminating all the variables um what you couldn't predict was the difference between jumping off of a say a hundred foot high ramp in into that quarry and a 2000 foot drop and you you couldn't you couldn't lens out the shot you just didn't know what it was going to look like and uh and there were certain factors that we simply couldn't predict which meant that no matter how much you rehearsed it when you went there on day one you really didn't know what was going to happen we we also had very calm conditions and very controlled conditions and in Norway there was crosswind yeah there were there were all these variables and we were determined not to do the shot with a helicopter because we didn't want to blow Tom off the rant when we got to Norway we discovered the only way for us to get the shot was to do it with a helicopter and so that shot was improvised for all of the time that we had spent we decided the camera the the helicopter guys came up to us and said we actually think we can get the shot and and we ended up doing it with a helicopter so when Tom took off my first thought was the helicopter could just blow him off the ramp and if he goes off the ramp the parachute's not going to save him um once he went off the ramp I thought the helicopter could easily follow the bike Tom could get tangled up there were a million different things that we had eliminated which it all now come back so imagine spending months eliminating all the things that could be dangerous and then on the day you go to shoot you reintroduce all of them doing them all at once so it truly as much as we knew we knew nothing from when he went off the ramp and there are very few instances where we don't no pretty pretty sure how it's going to turn out so that was really that was quite terrifying the other factor is he had six seconds and he had to count those seconds he had six seconds before he had to deploy the parachute and if he didn't he was not going to have enough room and so those six seconds which in in real time don't feel like a lot just stretched on first so eternity mi8 you said the only thing that made you more nervous than that is what you're going to do in the next one you tend to shoot I think everything in the beginning all the really tough stuff yeah is the toughest stuff in the can no no really the something so hairy is in the can the hardest thing is Yet to Come is that the aerial sequence the aerial sequence we did in Africa was definitely that was definitely to date the most terrifying thing we've done actually yeah that was extreme like what you can see some pictures on the internet that'll that'll give you a pretty good indication of what it is I think watching this one I think I have an idea I think the audience is going to have an idea yeah of what you're doing that you maybe haven't shot yet am I correct in my assumption um uh the very end shot should give you an indication of what's coming in part two we knew he was gonna do this yeah either jumping between planes or going doing a submarine type situation you won't be disappointed either way um the AI I don't know if you're prophetic because this was obviously written a few years ago such a hot topic now um could this have because it feels to me there's been a lot of villains this feels like the the villain I can understand the most and the one that feels like most it could happen it's I'll tell you it's uh it's an idea we talked about for a long time um and when I first presented the idea to Tom uh this was in about 2019 I said this is an idea that would have been a little too abstract for audiences even a few years ago but I feel people becoming more and more aware of how much their lives are affected by technology so we were and we saw it growing at such a rate what we didn't anticipate was the the time it would take to make the movie and the acceleration of technology for it to to meet the way that it has I think um everybody about the stunts the thing that I love about Tom is what an Exquisite actor he is and the one thing that I love that you do is you you hold on shots where he'll tell the team I got you and you'll hold on it just long enough can you see the doubt yes can you talk as a director working with him some of those moments where you were just awed by him as an actor yeah I have to say he's Tom is he is completely emotionally connected to the narrative and what you're seeing is you're we're navigating this story through a sense of of the emotional connection to the characters whether it's through action whether it's through drama and he has this innate sense of when he is feeling the audience connecting with the characters and losing that connection it isn't about Tom the star it's about Ethan the character it's about Maverick the character it's it's the protagonist and a protagonist-driven narrative and uh and so his relationship with the team and and the way different characters introduce themselves the way they comport themselves in the story that's all done by sense of feel we're working our way through a scene we think it's a great idea of the day and we get there and we're stepping back from it and looking at it going I'm not feeling it I'm not really connected to this person the information the plot the story none of that stuff matters as much or rather it can all give way instantly in favor of I'd have to be connected to the characters and one of the things I'm most proud about this movie weather at character is it hero villain antagonist you're connected to those characters you feel an affinity for them and that's really a testament to the cast they're this is truly an extraordinary top to bottom amazing cast what are you going to do after eight when he whispers in your ear we can do better uh we have ideas really you're gonna go beyond we have ideas yeah we're always talking it's it's one long conversation about movies interrupted by production every so often my very last question Palms character you've talked for about how you base some of these films off silent films in a sense yes was her character based off a silent film character no her character was uh what really inspired her character was um when Palm first came in to read we did a we did a camera test it wasn't an audition we were just we don't write a role and then go look for an actor we cast actors and then find the role and we were doing camera tests with palm and learned only in that test that her that her first language was French and as soon as we heard that I had written a scene for her I said stop speaking let's just speak French for the rest of the day she said the audience won't understand you I said it's an international spy movie it doesn't matter and she started doing French with Tom and it changed her body language it changed her entire comportment and then we started taking lines away and he realized she was so expressive without having to say anything and the the the the funniest part of production is Palm would come to work every day saying where are all my lines I don't have any dialogue and I just listen all the dialogue everybody else is explaining the plot of the movie you don't have to and you've got the best job on this movie um and she's such a force of nature she's such a powerful presence she just didn't need it she was she she was that's what we were feeling every time we looked at her in the frame and then when she finally does speak you listen yeah I heard you say she's the best actor you've ever worked with I'm like you know you've worked with Tom Cruise I would oh no yeah I would say the best actor I've ever worked was she's she what I was saying in that interview is just she she that her power how compelling she is she all Palm has to do is stand there and you just you can't take your own keyboards yeah

Channel: Fandango

Views: 247,907

Keywords: big ticket, ethan hunt, fandango, fandango interview, mission impossible, mission impossible dead reckoning, mission impossible dead reckoning interview, mission impossible dead reckoning part one, mission impossible dead reckoning part two, mission impossible interview, tom cruise, tom cruise interview

Id: U4007Rj0ez8

Length: 44min 3sec (2643 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 07 2023