EXCLUSIVE Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One Cast Interview | Film4 Interview Special

[Music] thank you mission imposs was the very first film I ever produced and at that time I'd been asked for many years to produce or direct and I went to Paramount who the woman who was running at that point was Sherry Lansing and I'd known her since I was 18. she cast me in Taps and she was the first female president of 20th Century Fox and it was something that I went to I was like okay when I looked at the library it was mission impossible I said I want to I'll produce that in our first film and then we started I worked on for two years beforehand hired Brian De Palma and here we are all these years later and my hope was to be able to have it continue but also to be able to challenge myself as a Storyteller as a filmmaker and really live you know and become part of my childhood dream which was to make movies and travel the world Tom and I are both big Believers that we we don't want you to have to leave the narrative to to enjoy and to remember another narrative to to to understand what's going on in this one we don't assume you've seen another mission impossible uh we the same way with top gun Maverick we didn't assume you had seen the original Top Gun it had to be a movie that stood alone uh and it had to be a movie that ended conclusively even though it was a part one we took that to the extreme and that we reintroduced the concept of the IMF but all of that was serving story which was by bringing back Henry Cerny bringing back a character from deep in Ethan's history it felt important that we recontextualize what the IMF is your days of fighting for the so-called greater good now over and answer some of those questions that really have always been taken for granted the notion of should you choose to accept the notion of where Ethan Hunt comes from and how he became this person this this is a really interesting film series initially it was this really interesting series of eclectic directors with self-contained Adventures we've had a different style uh you know a different approach you had De Palma Wu JJ and then Brad Bird and then on the Brad Bird movie McHugh came in as a writer and tommen and he began their their sort of creative partnership and after that it became this incredible sort of concentrated collaboration between Chris McCory and Tom Cruise and one thing McHugh has is a wonderful command of the entire story from start to finish he recognizes the legacy of what's gone before and wants to to channel that into what goes forwards this is an ongoing Journey has been for me as Benji going from A lab technician to a field agent and I think it really helps to just have the whole thing feel more more sort of a continuation of a story rather than those initial sort of one-off Adventures and McHugh has sort of knitted those together as well I must have made a wrong turn somewhere no no that's it that's it why how could this be it well you can see the yes I see the train what about it and you have a parachute got a parachute who do you expect me to do well just you know jump just jump yeah have you veggies doesn't work like that I'm not that high there's there's Ledges sticking out everywhere I'm gonna hit them before the parachute even opens pitchy even if I could get the parachute open I don't know if I can make it across the valley and intercept and land safely on a moving train do you copy yes I copy look I'm just trying to help you okay I need you to take a step back and pull yourself together because I am under a lot of pressure right now just I gotta get away from this mountain the story is in Chris's head and he has a multitude of pockets how I can describe how I see him so he has moments and he has storyline and he has plot and but everything is a mixed Smash and all over the place which means if he makes one decision there's a ripple effect of all the other decisions that happen and my character is a part of all of it so it's not a matter of him coming to me we don't really have the time to do that it's things are moving very quickly we need a stunt thing to work and why is it working I have to see my own journey within the story whilst it is unfolding and then I can say to him I'd like to try differently I'd like to take how about this take and he's very open to that but it's not in a sense and it can't be a collaborative process because it is in his and Tom's head and then when they are on set and they talk about it that's where the magic happens and you watch them so what happens here and why are they doing that Tom often asks why but why is she saying that why am I saying this um we're all kind of active at the moment of go we talk about character and journey and also for me it's also the other characters you know that is a story it's not just about my character it's about the world it's about the story it's about you know you look at this cast that we have you know you still have Ving and Simon and uh Rebecca and you also have we're bringing back the cast of Henry Cerny and there's just this it's an epic epic adventure people are chasing us yes they are you're driving well it does feel like a little bit of a paradox when you go okay you've walked into a well-oiled machine that's meticulous in the way that it's planning uh any kind of stunt because that takes months sometimes years of preparation engineering mechanical planning ahead and then also the discipline of training for the stunts whether that's Tom or myself and the drifting and the train sequence so you know that so much of it has to be um planned and thought through but then also on the day a lot of the time we're in rare locations so the weather might change or they might set up a shot and then just go you know what we had this idea this morning that this would work but actually the the view from behind behind us is better or you know what for some reason this isn't landing and if there's a definite shop list that goes out of the window by lunchtime because they're often kind of finding something that feels more interesting in the moment and you know they have that sort of um they're always searching for something better they're never going to settle and be like but the shot list says this we've got to do this today it's like well everything is up for up for discussion because they're looking for the thing that's going to be most exciting the notion of a vision uh of a of a set idea of what the film has to be which is really how I started uh as a director I I now see that as something that cuts you off from any kind of Discovery you have all these great actors you have this amazing talent all of whom are very very inventive and if I came in in the morning and said here's the script and here's how I want you to say it and here's what I want to have happen in the scene they're constrained and as a result when I get in the editing room I'm constrained the the things that have to happen the things that are absolutely necessary to plan in advance if you're going to Rome street closures the number of cars how many stunt drivers how many cops those things take an enormous amount of advanced planning that takes a lot of preparation in terms of what happens to the characters in those moments those are the things where we try to remain very loose the the actors will always have a guide they'll always have a Target to hit but it's not absolutely essential that they hit that Target the only thing that really matters is that I leave the uh that I leave the scene with real Affinity a real emotional connection to the characters you can try to write that but the truth of the matter is most of that the the best of it comes from moments of Behavior Uh there's a scene with Tom and Rebecca in a gondola on on their way to a party their behavior tells you more about those two characters than any than any dialogue ever would the scene that comes right before that when they're on the balcony in Venice there's two lines of dialogue in that scene it had started as four lines of dialogue and before that it was two pages of dialogue it's it's all about just finding the emotion and the behavior and and immersing the audience in the story I always say it don't ever let the plan get in the way of a better idea working with McHugh uh you have the general idea but there's a way to Circle the Drain and approach your character that eventually fine tunes into a pinpoint we can hope um he leaves a room for collaboration he knows he doesn't have all the answers because he expects people who've done this for years to bring something that he can't anticipate himself so I think it's really wise the same with Tom you know they make you feel at ease even though you're you're playing in the a you know you're playing in the big leagues and I I don't know any other franchise better at doing what they do you know at this that's most of you I am merely a broker I connect a buyer and a seller sometimes for money sometimes for information but mostly for friendship I just want everyone to get along with me especially but the world is changing truth is Vanishing war is coming and the key to World Domination is of all things a key one that any government in the world would pair King's Ransom to take possession of and some of my dearest friends in this case every major nuclear power in a handful of minor ones have asked me to deliver this key it's so funny because it doesn't feel like an action movie as we know it it feels like this whole genre of its own because it's a kind of a drama it also feels like a comedy it also feels like um a thriller and a Sci-Fi you know and a spy movie I mean it's so many in one and so that to me feels like it will always defy expectations and every character he kind of wants to do that with he doesn't want them to feel like with somebody that we've seen in cinema before and so with Alana I remember the the very first week when I signed on to fall out and get Chris gave me a book on Power and it was about how power doesn't have to be loud in fact the quietest power is the most powerful and so initially when we were playing themes and I would try to be assertive with the power he just said Oh no just reel it all back and try and remain mysterious and try and remain you know as if as if you're kind of magnetizing people to you because you don't have to because you have so many you know you're at the top of this organization it's a dark underground network of many different things dealing plutonium and various things and playing many people off against each other and so you always have to seem like everybody's side and on nobody's side I don't write a roll and then go looking for an actor I cast an actor that I'm really interested in or that we're really interested in and then we find the role uh Vanessa Kirby was somebody I met uh I met close to 10 years ago Haley Atwell somebody I met 10 years ago actors I was really interested in and looking for the right opportunity and the right showcase for them cut to six years later he called me in for a screen test with Tom and they both made it very clear that the way that they they do Mission Impossibles together is that they find the actor that they want to work with and then the three of us will collaborate and create a character very much as we go along in real time we had very very little in terms of specific ideas of what we wanted Haley to be we knew what we didn't want her to be part of my kind of theater background has meant that you in a rehearsal space you tried 10 different things 10 different line deliveries and you see what is most interesting and so with Grace on any given day I was trying lots of different things and I had no idea what you know what the through line would be for her until when I saw her I went oh she's consistently inconsistent one of the things that's really exciting when we when we start a new mission is who who's who's coming in who's new who's going to be the villain who's going to be our you know antagonists allies that kind of thing um and we've had a whole bunch of of new characters coming on this and because of the way we shot this movie because we shot it during a particular point in human history I don't need to really refer to it we all know what it was we were very much uh put together at the beginning in bubbles and uh staying in the same place eating in the same rooms and it was a really you know there's nothing to to be joyous about about what happened but one positive at least was that we were able to um knit together very quickly and it was really really uh advantageous to the creative process to be you know sort of boot camped together and and so all the new people in this um sort of integrated seamlessly into the kind of family that we are and it was it was nice new faces always fun I felt like the granddaddy you know because Tom's always busy Tom's always doing something so I was the sort of next person that the guys would come to and say what's happening what's this do we make films like this when am I coming in next we're filming Mission but we're living Mission and and the friendship and the group dynamic is so important it's kind of you can sit in your trailer and have lunch but we try and bring ourselves together a lot so that that Dynamic you find between us has been built up because of the safety that we feel with each other all the time Mercure remember said to me once when in the beginning he said you know we've got Tom the movie star we've got Simon Pegg who is this we have Ving you have to bring something you know who's ilsa for you and I could feel this with all the characters you know Haley Haley's phenomenal how wit her timing her you know precise quirkiness it it is such a character you fall in love with Haley and I trained together during covert because we live near each other and our amazing trainer Sam Eastwood was um down the road so we would go on socially distance running runs every day and it was so bonding and we got to go through a kind of five-month journey together before we even started and um we bonded very closely and I really love her and I love Rebecca so much and the women in this have always been a great inspiration to me I'm very proud to be part of a group of women that are you know so fierce laughs [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] looks like that that to me is just you're learning something you're not thinking about how you look doing it uh or if you're good at it yet you're just working out the mechanics of it as you go along and then over the time it becomes more muscle memory and once you can kind of rely on that and also I was very much relying on the stunt team and also Thomas to get the feedback of going am I ready to drive Tom well handcuffed to him in the streets of Rome you know is what do you think I can feel confident but I could be confident but that could be Reckless of me to assume that so it becomes this sort of over time the sense of we all have to trust each other and be very clear and transparent about each other so we understand the expectations that we're bringing in and if we can meet them no idea and you see Haley and I in a two shot did I you know and me as as her fellow actor as I'm responsible for did I prepare her correctly for this and as we're doing it I'm also driving and I'm watching her performance I'm I'm acting and I'm also McHugh and I know I'm out there shooting this and he and I will go back and we're going we know we have one hour and I'm losing the light I have to get this shot on her so I'm both driving and and I'm looking at her performance and I'm going okay and sometimes I'll be like say this line say that line you know I'm a cute and I'll write different lines and I'll throw other lines out to her going because I'm thinking about him in the editing room going he this is this is a moment to try this try that try this so that we have that room in the editing room to create that just finding the the lens inside that Fiat it's not just you gotta go what's what's the lens telling us what's the story not what do I think is telling us what is it telling us and then when you show it to it it's like okay what works and what doesn't it is the it is The Equalizer no matter what I think you know looks like we lost them [Music] well this film series has been part of my life for 17 years and as someone who went to see Mission Impossible at the cinema as a you know 25 year old man uh never knowing that one day I would be part of that team it's extra it's extraordinary for me to kind of think about that journey and and it never fails to kind of fill me with a sense of wonder that you know I've I've become such a part of it it's broadened my horizons in so many ways I've grown as an actor as a filmmaker you know I've watched McHugh and Tom kind of with a Gog you know with their method of filmmaking which is is a parallel kind of Mission Impossible whenever we make a film and I I'm just very grateful and it sounds awful doesn't it I'm so grateful but I am I am because it's a gift there's this this this film series has been a gift to me you know did you make it are you okay was like always when we finish a film we'll be at the premiere will be first screening for an audience I can't help but look at it and I lean over to him and I always say we can do better that's something that I always say to myself and I say to him for the past 16 years we've been making films together you just want to you want to know there's any story you can come up with any story you can take any any characters and create a story and the fun of it and the challenge is going how do we create these characters and engage an audience and what Adventure can we go on Fallout began to delve deeper into Ethan as a character really Ghost Protocol started to to play with that Fallout went deeper part one of dead reckoning goes deeper still and part two will will take you deepest

Channel: Film4

Views: 930,043

Keywords: Film 4, Film, Cinema, Film4, Channel 4, Filmmaking, Tom Cruise, Mission: Impossible, Rebecca Ferguson, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Vanessa Kirby, Henry Czerny, Peter Lupus, Action, Adventure, Action Adventure, Stunts, Interview, Interview Special, Christopher McQuarrie, J.J. Abrams, John Woo, Brad Bird, Brian De Palma, Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One, Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning, New Mission Impossible, Mission Impossible Exclusive Interview

Id: L7-axBoOI4c

Length: 19min 58sec (1198 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 07 2023