‘Mission: Impossible’s’ Hayley Atwell details crazy car chase scene with Tom Cruise

Article content

NEW YORK CITY — As she trained for one of her many big scenes in the latest Mission: Impossible, Hayley Atwell didn’t know she was about to become a part of cinema history. The British actress, until now best-known for her role as Peggy Carter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, was going to become the first performer to shoot an action sequence in the streets and alleys of Rome, while handcuffed to Tom Cruise.

Article content

As the new leading lady in Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One, Atwell plays Grace, a slick pickpocket who becomes entangled in Ethan Hunt’s (Cruise) latest mission to stop a rogue artificial intelligence system from falling into the wrong hands.

Article content

Atwell was tapped for the part after leaving a favourable impression on Cruise and Dead Reckoning’s writer-director Christopher McQuarrie when she auditioned for 2012’s Jack Reacher. McQuarrie, who his actors playfully refer to as “McQ,” had made it a point to come up with a role for her in a future movie.

“Hayley Atwell was someone we’d been talking too or about for the better part of 10 years; trying to find just the right thing for her very specific brand of, I don’t know what you call it — it,” McQuarrie told Postmedia at last week’s New York premiere.

Article content

Article content

Cruise said that Dead Reckoning’s two-part story (the second film opens next summer) allowed the filmmaking team to expand the cast in a big way this time around.

“McQ and I really wanted to blow this one out and make it a big, big epic adventure,” the leading man said.

After a decade in the MCU playing Steven Rogers/ Captain America’s love interest, Atwell spent nearly half-a-year prepping to shoot a sequence with Cruise that find the two characters being chased by an assassin (played by Pom Klementieff) through the busy streets of Rome while handcuffed to one another.

“We spent five months, drifting together and being handcuffed and working out what the physical dynamic would be,” Atwell said. “We choreographed it like a dance. You want a scene to be constructed where two characters who don’t know each other (are) trying to get away from each other and they’re being forced through circumstance, pressure and stakes to have to work together.

Article content

“The characters don’t know it, but the audience is already seeing them work as a team … I loved the challenge.”

The 20-minute scene echoes the classic chase sequences from films like Bullitt, but the hair-raising antics leads to funny banter between the pair that generates laughs.

“There are fun elements, so it becomes kind of like a caper,” Atwell said. “Kind of like a cat-and-mouse thing.”

One of several newcomers to the franchise (Esai Morales plays the film’s main villain), Atwell was embraced by her Mission co-stars Rebecca Ferguson and Vanessa Kirby, the latter of whom light-heartedly interrupted our red carpet conversation.

“I love her,” Ferguson said.

But after the two exchanged pleasantries, the actress was quick to emphasize that the car chase was completed with all practical effects.

Article content

“We did it all for real. It’s not called Mission-a-bit-tricky. We wanted to make sure we were giving everything we got because we know Tom brings it and he trains hard and he’s disciplined,” Atwell said.

The Rome car chase is just one of the thrilling stunts that Cruise and McQuarrie dreamt up for Dead Reckoning. The film’s finale involves a thrilling fight on top of a moving train (which crashes), the lead-up to which features Cruise driving a motorbike off a cliff in Norway.

Cruise shot the death-defying moment on the first day of filming, telling Postmedia he wanted to get it out of the way because he “trained very hard.”

“I don’t want that hanging over my head. I trained, so let’s get it done … let’s get it over with,” he said.

Article content

Like most of her Mission castmates, Atwell was present to watch him in action on that day, which she recalled as the perfect introduction to the long-running franchise.

“It was day one of filming and all the cast was watching him do this and we all kind of felt like it was his way of saying, ‘Welcome to Mission,’” she says laughing. “That’s how we began this film and he set the tone.”

Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One is now playing in theatres.

[email protected]

Twitter: @markhdaniell

Article content