Hayley Atwell Talks 'Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One'
Moviefone speaks to Hayley Atwell about 'Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One' and Tom Cruise. "He is dedicated, a professional, and a gentleman."
‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,’ which was co-written and directed by Academy Award-winner Christopher McQuarrie ('The Usual Suspects,' ‘Mission: Impossible – Fallout’), opens in theaters on July 12th and is the latest installment of the ‘Mission: Impossible’ franchise.
What is the plot of ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’?
In ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,’ Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF team embark on their most dangerous mission yet: To track down a terrifying new weapon that threatens all of humanity before it falls into the wrong hands. With control of the future and the fate of the world at stake, and dark forces from Ethan's past closing in, a deadly race around the globe begins. Confronted by a mysterious, all-powerful enemy, Ethan is forced to consider that nothing can matter more than his mission – not even the lives of those he cares about most.
Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One
Who is in the cast of ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’?
Tom Cruise ('Top Gun') as Ethan Hunt, Hayley Atwell (Captain America: The First Avenger') as Grace, Esai Morales ('Master Gardener') as Gabriel, Ving Rhames ('Pulp Fiction') as Luther Stickell, Simon Pegg ('Hot Fuzz') as Benji Dunn, Rebecca Ferguson ('Dune') as Ilsa Faust, Vanessa Kirby ('Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw') as Alanna Mitsopolis, Pom Klementieff (‘Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3’) as Paris, Henry Czerny ('Scream VI') as Eugene Kittridge, Shea Whigham ('Joker') as Jasper Briggs, and Greg Tarzan Davis ('Top Gun: Maverick') as Degas.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Hayley Atwell about her work on ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,’ her mysterious character, her relationship to Ethan Hunt, and working with Tom Cruise.
Hayley Atwell in 'Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning - Part One' from Paramount Pictures and Skydance.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews with Pegg, Hayley Atwell, Vanessa Kirby, Pom Klementieff, Shea Whigham, Greg Tarzan, and director Christopher McQuarrie.
Moviefone: To begin with, can you talk about your mysterious characters, Grace, and your approach to playing her?
Hayley Atwell: Great question. Because it was a collaborative one over a long period of time. There was a lot of time in filming where she didn't even have a name. So, we tried lots of different things and different kinds of qualities to see what kind of thing felt most exciting on camera and, Tom and McQuarrie, I'd met several times before. McQuarrie had come to see me in a play in London's West End about 10 years ago and said, "I want to work with you. I just don't know what the character is yet." So when I came in for the screen test for this, they both said, "We're looking for the actor we want to work with and then we will build the character with them in real time as filming commences." So I loved that. I found that very liberating because I trusted that I was in safe hands with them. They were not going to allow me to do something that ended up on a screen that I wouldn't be proud of. So it allowed me the freedom to try lots of different things. So, the five months of preparation of stunt training for it was also about studying films from ‘Paper Moon’ to ‘The Sting’ to ‘Broadcast News’ to ‘What's Up Doc?,’ to try and find a levity that I could take and build with Tom as a new kind of chemistry than you've seen before in this kind of franchise.
(L to R) Hayley Atwell and Tom Cruise in 'Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One' from Paramount Pictures and Skydance.
Related Article: Simon Pegg Talks 'Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One'
MF: What is Tom Cruise like as a scene partner, especially in the action sequences?
HA: He is dedicated, he is a consummate professional, and a gentleman. He's very concerned with people's health and safety as well as his own. So, he's meticulous in his preparation for any stunt that he does, which also means that his resources or an education for myself coming into this is so huge that I too felt like I could learn so much about what's going to keep me safe, what's going to keep me dynamic and mobile, and able to do a stunt several times from different directions, different takes with different performance notes, and how to sustain that over months and months. You feel very much in safe hands because he's like a boxing coach that's on your side. When you do something or land something, he is your greatest fan because he wants to see everyone around him thrive, which means his encouragement is contagious. I think everyone says that about him, that have worked with him in this way close up with him in terms of stunts that there's no one quite like him.
(L to R) Hayley Atwell and Tom Cruise in 'Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One' from Paramount Pictures and Skydance.
MF: Finally, can you talk about Grace’s alliance with Ethan Hunt?
HA: That was so fun to discover. It's going, how are they cat and mouse or sort of sibling, how can they play with each other but in a way that didn't seem to be too calculating? That they both needed each other in some way or both looking for the same thing, and how could they get their own needs met, but by using each other? To work with him in scenes, he's incredibly present. Anything that you offer up, he will have seen it, taken it on board and reacted to it. He's very alive to the other actor. Even when he's off-screen and he's standing behind the monitor or the camera and it's your closeup, he is right there with you giving exactly the same amount of energy and focus as he would be if he was in front of the camera too. So, you have a scene partner, you have someone that's in your corner and someone that's opposite you, that's holding the space for you to the best work you can possibly do in that moment.
Hayley Atwell stars in 'Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning - Part One' from Paramount Pictures and Skydance.
Other Movies Similar to ‘Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One:’
- 'Top Gun' (1986)
- ‘Mission: Impossible' (1996)
- ‘Mission: Impossible II' (2000)
- ‘Mission: Impossible III' (2006)
- 'Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol' (2011)
- 'Jack Reacher' (2012)
- 'Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation' (2015)
- 'Jack Reacher: Never Go Back' (2016)
- 'Mission: Impossible - Fallout' (2018)
- 'Top Gun: Maverick' (2022)
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'Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One' is produced by Paramount, Skydance Media, New Republic Pictures, and TC Productions. The movie is scheduled to release in theaters on July 12th, 2023.
