We sat down with the cast of “Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning” (Angela Bassett, Hayley Atwell, Simon Pegg, Pom Klementeiff and Greg Tarzan Davis) to talk about the important aspects of art and filmmaking. You know, like eating Tom Cruise’s coconut cake, going shark diving, barely missing out on the stunt Oscar and much, much more.
00:32Mission Impossible Fallout, Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning, Mission Impossible Final Reckoning, Mission Impossible 3.
00:39Ghost Protocol?
00:40Ghost Protocol!
00:41Oh, shit, yeah.
00:42You have played the president twice this year.
00:47Funny how that worked out.
00:50You want to, like, take this opportunity to announce your candidacy?
00:53I would not.
00:54But it was fun while it lasted.
00:59The latest installment came just in time to miss out on the stunt Oscar, and there's not going to be any for a while.
01:06So did the irony of that hit you at all?
01:09Or is anyone talking about it?
01:10I think we don't know, because we're not in it for that, genuinely.
01:15Like, regardless of any of that sort of thing, Tom makes movies because he's passionate about them, and he makes them for the audience, not for awards, genuinely.
01:25Like, he so wants to delight mass audiences, and wants to make movies that are designed for the big screen and to be watched collectively.
01:34And I think you feel that.
01:35You know, the film in itself is a celebration of filmmaking, and it's a celebration of this particular kind of filmmaking, which is entirely mechanical and real, and the locations are real.
01:45And it adds to what makes this movie so visceral and immersive, and that, I think, for me, speaks for itself.
01:52As this comes to an end, what's the one Tom Cruise story that you would share at dinner parties?
01:56Oh, my God.
01:57There's so many over the years, just so many what I call Tom moments.
02:02I remember one time when we were shooting in Morocco, we all went ziplining before we went to Casablanca, and because we had to do it in a certain amount of time, we did like a speed zipline.
02:16We ran this entire canyon with Tom, and then we ran, and we got on this jet, and we flew to Casablanca.
02:22But I think the most Tom Cruise-y day of Final Reckoning, we were in South Africa, we were shooting the scene when the truck is driving up to the doomsday vault, and there was a helicopter behind us.
02:33It was, you know, following us.
02:36Tarzan actually said, hilariously, he was looking around, and he said, wow, it's like we're in a movie.
02:41And I said, Tarzan, we are in a movie.
02:44But we got to the top, and then we'd get out of the car, jump in a helicopter.
02:48Tom would fly us back to number ones so we could do the shot again, and Tom would fly through this canyon, you know, with either side of us, like, showing off, doing kind of aerobatics in this helicopter, with me, Hayley, and Pom, and Tarzan in the back.
03:01We'd jump out, do it again.
03:02We got the shot early in the end, and Tom said, hey, why don't we go shark diving?
03:07So, Hayley, and Pom, and Tarzan, and me were like, no, okay, sure, why not?
03:12So we'd get back in the helicopter with Tom, he flew us out to the coast.
03:15We had a quick tutorial on how not to get eaten, and then we went and got in a cage, and we fed sharks for the rest of the afternoon.
03:22And that is a Tom Cruise day.
03:24Sometimes we were at the studios, and then we're, like, wrapping the day, and he was like, oh, do you want to ride home?
03:33And the ride home is in a helicopter.
03:34So I was like, yeah, sure.
03:37So he would just, like, fly me or, like, us back to central London with a helicopter.
03:43And it was so beautiful because it was sunset.
03:46So it was really cool.
03:47So, yeah, I don't know any other actor who does that or any other movie that, you know, that I've done that with.
03:55So that was really special.
03:57Is your presence in the franchise important to you more so than the coconut cake, or are they on pretty equal standard?
04:06Yeah, I love that I get that.
04:08Some years more than, you know, depend on my relationship with cake at the moment, you know, cake at Christmas.
04:15But it's pretty hard to resist, especially once you take that first bite.
04:20Are you getting the coconut cake?
04:22Oh, yes.
04:23Yes, every Christmas.
04:25And I tear it up by myself.
04:26So my little technique is to, like, slice it and then to freeze it.
04:31And I think it's even better when it's frozen because it's just the texture is so nice.
04:37And it makes it just slightly less sweet.
04:40And with the coffee in the morning, it's just amazing.
04:43But it becomes very addictive and every morning you're, like, craving the sugar and, like, I need the coconut cake.
04:49Well, see, my technique is to receive it, eat it within three days, and then self-destruct.
04:55Now the fate of every living soul on Earth is your responsibility.
05:06I was holding my breath, that whole submarine sequence.
05:09Was that a crazy one for you to experience in the movie theater?
05:11Yeah, I watched it for the second time last night.
05:14And I found, I think the first time I watched it, we were in Tokyo.
05:20We were really jet-lagged.
05:21We were really overwhelmed because we were nervous.
05:23We hadn't seen it yet.
05:24It was our first time.
05:25And we watched it.
05:26And it kind of, like, you know, we walked out dazed.
05:29And I couldn't remember it.
05:30I just knew I liked it.
05:32The second time I watched it, I felt so involved in it.
05:36You know, I know I am literally involved in it.
05:38But watching it, it was so, so immersive.
05:43And that sequence, the way that McHugh scores that sequence, his idea was that you can't have an orchestra underwater.
05:50So all the sound in the underwater sequences has to be something you could hear underwater.
05:56So he uses these Russian throat singers and this mega bass thing.
06:01It's so incredible.
06:02And then you have the revolver, when the sub is turning around, we had this insane gimbal on set, like nothing you've ever seen.
06:09And, you know, torpedoes falling everywhere.
06:12I looked at my daughter, who was watching it with me, and she watched the whole thing with her head in her hands and her eyes wide open and her mouth open.
06:21And it was, you know, true, true, raw cinema.
06:26It was fantastic.
06:27I remember being on set and seeing the scale of what they were doing, what they were setting out to achieve.
06:33And seeing also his suit and his training for it and the extra training he had to do for this particular sequence.
06:41And to see the kind of dedication of bettering himself, like every movie for him is a new mountain to climb where he wants to top what he did last time.
06:50It's a testament to how committed he is to developing himself as an actor and as a producer.
06:55But then getting the chance to see it as an audience member, I get the joy of not having to do it myself.
07:03And just being able to go, I was there, I can see that it's all up on the screen.
07:09He's so dedicated and it's phenomenal what he's able to achieve and it's all for the sake of thrilling an audience.
07:16Yeah, I was, yeah, to see that, because that's all fresh, you know, fresh eyes, you know, seeing these images for the first time and everything that's going on.
07:27It really, like, ups the stress level of what, you know, Erica's going through on her side.
07:32So they, you know, the stress, you know, is a height on both ends, you know, like, will he make it?
07:39Will I make it?
07:40But so I really love that.
07:43You never know what you're going to do.
07:44So Tom is like, hey, you want to always be prepared.
07:46So he put us through, you know, these different programs like, you know, motorbike riding, dirt bike, weapons, martial arts, skydiving, drifting, racing.
07:55So you go through a particular type of boot camp to be competent and showing that you can, you're able to do any and everything.
08:03There was unofficial reports that are now circulating that you're going to be in Doomsday and everyone's wondering where your chair was.
08:10Oh, my gosh.
08:11Well, I mean, that's I would be delighted to be ever called back and to reprise a role.
08:18I loved it.
08:19It was such an important part of my life.
08:21I'm sure there's so much more that can be done with that character as I've grown and developed as an actor as well.
08:27Yeah.
08:28If they want to give me a chair, I will happily sit in it.
08:32But I have nothing else to offer.
08:35That's news to me.
08:36Have you seen Sinners?
08:37I have.
08:38I have indeed.
08:39Yeah, I loved it, even though it scared me.
08:42You know, I saw it through fingers, you know, you know, one eye, you know.
08:49But yeah, I loved it.
08:50The look of it, the music.
08:52Yeah.
08:53Beautiful story.
08:54Yeah.
08:54Your boy Coogler is just I think he's officially confirmed to the world that he's a genius.
08:59I think so.
09:00I agree.
09:01I concur.
09:01Now that it's kind of come to an end.
09:03How has that changed the trajectory of your life?
09:05Oh, man, it's been a 20-year roller coaster.
09:09You know, I filmed my first scene 20 years ago this year.
09:13And here I am now, you know, promoting my sixth Mission Impossible movie, something I never expected, you know, in a million years when I did the first one.
09:22It's been an extraordinary ride.
09:25I feel very privileged to have got to grow a character over that period of time, get to return to him and add to him and, you know, sort of grow him as a character.
09:36I'll never get that chance again unless, you know, I wind up in some other franchise and spend 20 years.
09:41I don't see that happening.
09:43It's not something I particularly want to do because I feel like this would be a hard one to top.
