Mission: Impossible star Rebecca Ferguson says that, scene-to-scene, the films are mostly improvised. The popular action franchise based on the 1960s and '70s TV series of the same name has featured Tom Cruise in the lead role of Impossible Mission Force agent Ethan Hunt since it began in 1996. The next installment, tentatively titled Mission: Impossible 7, is scheduled for release on September 30, 2022, while Mission: Impossible 8 is slated for July 7, 2023.
The Cruise-led film series has been generally well-reviewed and carries a strong fanbase, with audiences always eager to see what impressive stunt the actor will attempt next. Originally, the M:I movies were known for handing each project off to a new director, with the first four helmed by Brian De Palma, John Woo, J. J. Abrams, and Brad Bird, respectively. Since making 2015's Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, however, Oscar-winning screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie has stayed on as director, and just this year completed filming on the upcoming M:I7.
In an interview for the Little Gold Men podcast from Vanity Fair, Ferguson, who reprises her role as Ilsa Faust, reveals that the creative process behind these action thrillers isn't as structured as audiences might expect. Sharing that the M:I team doesn't work with scripts, instead handing out lines on the day, she says that actors enter the day of production knowing almost nothing about what will happen. While they obviously prepare certain stunts in advance, the actual dynamics of each scene are worked out by McQuarrie and Cruise in the moment:
We don't work with scripts... We don't know anything. The parameters are, you have complete trust that you're working with a brilliant storyteller, Chris McQuarrie, Tom knows so much about basically everything, they're like Tweedledum and Tweedledee. You try and get close to them on set, because they'll start telling stories, 'Oh my god, we could do this, and then she enters...' And that's when you start going, 'Ah, that makes sense, I can kind of create a puzzle here.' But to be honest, you have absolutely no idea where you're gonna go, what you're gonna do. When you run in a scene, you don't know if you're running away or towards something.
While the M:I7 actor describes this process as incredibly frustrating at times, she also finds it exhilarating, and admits that the director and star have worked out a way to create on-screen excitement that might not have been possible on the page. Both this upcoming sequel and M:I8 were originally meant to shoot back-to-back, but due to pandemic-related delays and Cruise's busy schedule, the filmmakers reportedly decided to stop production once M:I7 had wrapped. Ferguson couldn't say for sure, however - she reminds her interviewer that, because of how little she knows going into each scene, she never knew which movie they were filming material for.
While McQuarrie has spoken before about entering M:I projects with only an outline, it is still quite surprising to hear how little the film's own cast know about their characters' motivations. But, as Ferguson says, there must be something about this approach that just works for an action franchise, as the last few installments have been the best-received so far. While this peek behind the curtain won't change how thrilling it is to see Cruise defy death again in M:I7, any foot-chases will seem much more amusing, knowing that the actors in them had no idea why they were running.
Source: Little Gold Men
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