While actress Hayley Atwell — known for her appearances in Captain America: The First Avenger and the last Mission Impossible film Dead Reckoning: Part 1 — isn't working in movies, she immerses herself in theatre plays, such as the one she is about to appear in, 'Much Ado', an adaptation of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, co-starring the seasoned Tom Hiddleston.
During an interview with The Guardian, she opened up about her experience working with Tom Cruise in the upcoming — and supposedly final — 'Mission Impossible' film.
Atwell recalls mustering the necessary confidence to "try lots of different things" in a movie heavy on risky action sequences due to Cruise's remarkable professionalism.
“When I started, I was very aware of the rarefied air around him and how there is no one like him. And there never will be because actors aren’t made like him any more. He is a one-man studio and, to me, very kind, very professional. There was never a risk of failure or being unsafe. Tom really likes people to thrive on set,” she said.
For her role, Atwell had to undergo intense physical training for five months and was required to do a variety of stunts with Cruise who, according to her, once wished as a five-year-old to "jump from a cliff on a motorbike" and later made his dream come true in the movies. That's not, however, the case with the other actors who are "kind of making it up as they go."
When asked if The Final Reckoning is the last film in the franchise, Atwell couldn't say for sure. “I mean, look, they called it The Final Reckoning. On the other hand, ‘Tom Cruise’ and ‘final’ are oxymorons, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he goes: 'Wait, maybe …’ Since he has so many things he is working on, I can’t see how another Mission would fit into that.”
Meanwhile, Tom Cruise is confirmed to lead and co-produce acclaimed filmmaker Alejandro G. Iñárritu's next film which also features Sandra Hüller, John Goodman, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jesse Plemons, Sophie Wilde, and Riz Ahmed. Filming began in November last year. The director's frequent collaborator Emmanuel Lubezki (The Revenant) is the director of photography.