00:08First off, I want to say congratulations on the new film.
00:10Thank you. It is amazing.
00:11What was it like to step into this crazy Mission Impossible world?
00:14It felt kind of fortuitous, or a long time coming.
00:18McHugh, Chris McQuarrie, an incredible writer and director,
00:21came to see me in a play ten years ago on stage in London.
00:25And so, took me out for dinner afterwards and said,
00:28I want to work with you. I don't know what it is yet,
00:30but I'm going to make it happen.
00:32I kind of came away going,
00:33oh, well, you know, incredible guy, amazing talent,
00:35but you never know if these things will amount to anything
00:38because it's just, you know, it's a very precarious industry, you know.
00:42So, to be then getting the call saying,
00:44we'd love to discuss Mission with you,
00:48what was so different and unique about this kind of franchise
00:51is that in the screen test they said,
00:53there isn't a character that we're looking for someone to fit into.
00:56We will find the actor we want to work with
00:58and create the character together as we go along.
01:01So, when I got the job, it was five months of training
01:04to work out not only the physicality of Grace,
01:07but also film references that we could use in the movie,
01:12tonally, what the chemistry would be like.
01:15There was a lot of collaboration.
01:17So, you mentioned film references there.
01:19What kind of film references were you for?
01:21We watched a lot of 70s heist movies.
01:23So, we watched What's Up Doc, Paper Moon, The Sting.
01:28We watched Thomas Crown Affair, To Catch the Thief, The Train, Shane.
01:34Lots of, yeah, and movies that had a sort of cat and mouse feel to them
01:41and a sort of wholesome, endearing, exasperating relationship between the protagonists.
01:49And then, so from out of that, the Fiat 500 kind of came in as a third character
01:56in their sort of momentarily romantic comedy that happens in the middle of this car chase.
02:01What was the scooter budget on this film?
02:03Does it feel like every 10 seconds someone destroys a Vespa?
02:06I know, I know.
02:07I remember at one point, I think it was cut out of the film,
02:10that we got so much that, you know, you've got to make three more movies
02:13with all the footage we filmed.
02:16But there's one moment where they wanted Ethan to not know what street Grace had gone down,
02:22but then he just has to listen to all the car alarms that she set off,
02:27and it would lead him straight to her.
02:29And I sort of love this idea that she was reckless,
02:34but sort of angry the way that other people park their cars,
02:38rather than her being the problem.
02:39I thought that was kind of a funny character note.
02:42Definitely.
02:42I think that scene is one of my favourite scenes in terms of any car chase in any movie.
02:46But what can you run me through in terms of being handcuffed to Tom Cruise,
02:49flying through the seats of Rome in a Fiat 500?
02:52The main thing was that I trained for five months in England
02:56to make sure that I was a competent drifter,
02:59and that I could control various cars.
03:03So by the time that I got out to Rome,
03:06the real challenge and the obstacles of driving around an old city like that,
03:11on cobbled streets, with people watching, lots of equipment,
03:16lots of crew around, paparazzi around,
03:19people looking out of their windows, wanting to come and see Tom,
03:22all of these added elements meant that there had to be no doubt in my mind
03:27that I was capable and competent of the actual task of drifting.
03:31And so when we got to the kind of performance element of it, there was a freedom,
03:38because I knew I could do it.
03:41And Tom had entrusted me with that by allowing me to drive him
03:45while he sat in the passenger seat handcuffed to me,
03:48a place metaphorically and literally wouldn't be his place of choice.
03:53But to cede power in that way and give me the wheel
03:56was a huge sense of sort of trust, I think, he put in me.
04:02And I think that what I'm so proud of is that that scene is entirely a two-shot between us.
04:09It's not that they had to cut in because one take was better for me
04:12or one take was better for him.
04:13We're entirely connected for the whole car chase sequence.
04:17And that means that we are responding to each other in little subtle ways.
04:22We're just always aware of what the other person is doing as we're in that car together.
04:26And I think that that's what creates the chemistry.
04:29Loved it.
04:30Thanks so much for your time.
04:31Thank you so much.
04:32You're welcome.
04:33Congratulations on the new film.
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