Vanessa Kirby has shared the exact moment she first thought she might be returning for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, with an indication from producer and star Tom Cruise.
The English actress, who was Oscar-nominated for her performance in Pieces of A Woman in 2021, joined the blockbuster franchise for the last outing, 2018’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout.
She portrays arms dealer Alanna Mitsopolis, a.k.a the White Widow, daughter of Vanessa Redgrave’s character from the first film back in 1996, who funds her philanthropic efforts through rather unexpected methods.
Discussing her reappearance in the new film, Kirby, 35, shared when she first had an inkling.
She told Metro.co.uk: ‘You never quite know anything, I think. But I remember shooting the last shot of Fallout – we shot it months later, and something’s going out of the boot of my car – and I sort of had this look between Tom and I, and I thought, “Oh, I think that means I might be returning”.’
‘I was so glad when he rang and said yes, she’d be back. Because it’s always lovely to return and to keep developing a character or just come back to this sort of homely place and a group of people you love. It’s great,’ she added.
Meanwhile, co-star Pom Klementieff, best known for her turn as Mantis in the Guardians of the Galaxy films, is a newcomer to Mission: Impossible as the deadly assassin Paris.
Despite the pedigree of being a member of a group of intergalactic mercenaries in pretty action-packed MCU movies, she still put a lot of work – over years – into trying to land a role in Mission: Impossible.
‘I was trying to manifest it – and also, I was training hard for years, even prior [to] getting cast in the movie. It was actually when I got cast for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, I was doing stunt training and training with a martial artist called Jessen Noviello doing kicking, boxing, kickboxing, taekwondo, I learned how to do the splits, I was doing high kicks, and all these things!’
‘Sometimes, instead of writing martial arts training, or stunt training, in my schedule in my phone, I would write ‘Mission Impossible’ because it was my dream to be part of that franchise and to work with Tom,’ she admitted.
‘So when I finally got to do a screen test, I was so excited. And then when I got the role, I was like, “Yes!!”’
The two also both took Mission: Impossible’s way of working with a very rough script (if at all) in their stride, which is Cruise and his long-time collaborator, writer-director Christopher McQuarrie’s, favoured way of working, homing in on set pieces and dazzling stunts as their starting points instead.
‘They have an idea of where the story is going to go and they know the locations,’ Kirby explained. ‘I remember on Fallout thinking, “Oh my God, but how can you work without knowing every scene by scene?”, and then you quickly realise that the process is actually a really unique form of creativity, which is, let’s see what serves this best, what is it wanting to be, rather than it has to be this and then you’re kind of trapped or stuck into one thing and it limits you in some ways.
‘So, whether it’s an actor or even a location, they see it and they go down [the route of] what is the best version? And they take you and they get to know you, and then they try and draw things out of you that perhaps you haven’t had before, and then the scenes unfold according to that.’
She teases a big group scene set in a club space in Dead Reckoning Part One with a lot of the cast present, using it as an example of how many different directions things could go in.
‘We’re all together and all of these big characters [are] in one tiny space, then anything’s possible really, and they kind of follow the follow the scent from there.’
For Klementieff’s part, she also relished the freedom of improvising and got stuck in offering her own character suggestions too.
‘I remember there was a scene in the movie on the train with a window and a little heart – it was my idea and it was never in the script. I had to get the keys from another character and I was like telling [director] McQ, “Oh, can I do that? I don’t know, I feel like it would be fun”, and he was like, “Yeah, do it!”
‘So you come up with ideas and it’s a really collaborative process, cool and really freeing in some ways.’
With Alanna and Paris, Kirby and Klementieff appear to be having a lot of fun, playing against the more clichéd type of female roles in older action films with more shades of grey and unexpected qualities.
‘I think both characters are very complex and they have an insanity to them too, in different ways,’ Klemetieff argued.
‘There’s a scene in the movie where it’s so intense and your [Kirby’s] eyes are bloodshot and you just seem completely crazy and it’s so cool. And my character is crazy too – but differently.’
‘I mean, not many women get to do that in movies to be honest.’
‘Yeah, it’s true that both of them are really not like the girlfriend type in the movie,’ chimed in Klemtieff, which left Kirby cackling at the thought.
‘Oh God, at your peril!’ she chuckled.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One hits UK cinemas on Monday, July 10.
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