Mission Impossible 3 - Tom Cruise interview
Compiled by Jack Foley
Tom Cruise talks about his role in Mission Impossible 3, including taking part in the film’s many stunts and how Lost creator, JJ Abrams, eventually came to direct…
Q: With Mission Impossible 3 JJ Abrams said that he wanted the film to show the man behind the agent. Presumably that gives you more to get your teeth into as an actor?
Tom Cruise: Yes, the range of the character is huge. JJ just gave me a great character. It’s a challenge emotionally and physically and very dynamic on all of those fronts. It’s a story of extremes but it’s also very personal. It could be reflective of life when you look at it.
Q: Why did you choose JJ to direct?
Tom Cruise: I’ll give you the story. Steven Spielberg and I were working on War of the Worlds and we were meeting some writers. So Paula Wagner [co-producer], Steven and I went to meet with JJ to talk to him about writing War of the Worlds and within the first couple of minutes I knew I liked him. I knew of his work but just as importantly I liked him, he’s very charismatic and smart. Then something just happened creatively and we started working together. As I was leaving, his secretary came out and gave me the first season of Alias which I’d never seen before. One night, I was up at my ranch in Colorado and I put the Alias tape on. I started watching the pilot, which JJ had directed, and I was blown away. I put the next one and the next one and I ended up watching as much as I could. Within a couple of days I had finished the whole first season and I called him on the phone – he was actually on set in Hawaii shooting Lost – and said: “I couldn’t turn it off. That was brilliant. Call me when you get back to LA.” So I met with him and I went in the editing room and he showed me a couple of scenes from Lost which I thought was incredible. I said: :Look, when are you going to direct a movie?”
Q: It’s a big movie for a first-time director. Was that ever a concern for you?
Tom Cruise: I have to tell you that it didn’t feel like it was his first feature. This is actually the most complex and the biggest Mission Impossible we’ve produced. Just look at the locations – China, Rome, we shot in Germany. The sequences were very complex but we finished the film under schedule and under budget. Then you look at the story that this man wrote and directed and it’s fantastic.
Q: How did the collaboration between you two work out?
Tom Cruise: It’s like when I work with Steven [Spielberg]. There’s never a moment where we are not going to figure it out, where it’s not going to work. That’s how I feel with JJ – that we’re always going to figure it out and come up with the ideas. You don’t just write it and shoot it, you know. From a production stand point, there are so many different elements and he handled it.
Q: If you were producing Mission: Impossible III and weren’t starring in it, would you let your star do the kind of things that you were doing?
Tom Cruise: No way! [laughs] Absolutely no way.
Q: The scene on the bridge where the bad guys fire missiles at Ethan’s car and he runs as it explodes behind him and is slammed into a car. Can you talk us through that stunt?
Tom Cruise: Well with that particular stunt JJ and I were looking at it and I said: “When that missile hits, I’m not just going to fall down..” When you’re on set you start getting ideas and we started to ask: “How do we do this so that I get blown into the car?” Vic Armstrong, our stunt co-ordinator, came on and designed this rig that pulls me up and another rig that jacks me to the left. I’m going full sprint and it lifts me up and it’s “whoa! Bam!” It slams me into the back of the car.
Q: Did JJ try and talk you out of doing it?
Tom Cruise: No! But look, if I didn’t feel I could do it, I would say no. I knew it was going to be a test and I knew I was going to take a hit – you just do. But you want to get it done and do it in the least amount of takes possible. It was designed to be done in one take, so there’s no cut. I’m running and bam! I slam into the thing. That’s kind of my favourite stuff, to come up with an idea and shoot it the next day and have it be that immediate. There’s this scene when I’m sliding on the ground to the car – we just came up with that the day before. I love that.
Q: Did the stunt hurt?
Tom Cruise: Oh yeah. It sure did. But I’m very proud of it. You know, I separated six ribs – not on that stunt, but on another stunt I was doing where I got whipped around and six ribs just went like that [clicks fingers]. Three on each side. I was up in this rig and it was such a simple thing but it just twisted my body and it twisted it too hard and that was it.
Q: What is it about playing Ethan Hunt that brings you back to him?
Tom Cruise: I love the adventure of the character. I love the world that you can create and you can always go to a different place – different locations and there’s always a new mission. It’s tremendously challenging to put these films together. I love adventure movies, I just love action adventure films. It’s pure cinema and you go in and you’re lost to it. To me, it’s that challenge – I want to give an audience that ride, that entertainment. That’s what I love about Mission: Impossible, as soon as you hear that theme tune it gets you. And you know, it’s the promise of summer. It’s going to be a great summer and I want to contribute to that.
Q: When you look back over your career, are there favourite films?
Tom Cruise: It’s like your children; I can’t say there’s a favourite. But there are films that when I look back on them I say: “Wow, I’m really pleased..” Like Risky Business and Taps, when I look back then, that time was very special to me. But it’s hard, I can’t say “that is my favourite..” because there are so many ones that I feel really proud of what we created at that point.
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JJ Abrams interview