Interview : Tom Cruise

I recently had the opportunity to listen to actor-producer Tom Cruise talk about his exciting new film, "Mission Impossible 3" at a Q&A made possible by Paramount Pictures. The film, directed by J.J. Abrams, features the latest adventures of super-spy Ethan Hunt as he faces his most personal mission yet. Cruise delivers a compelling and charismatic performance along with some exceptional stunt work in this third installment of the popular spy thriller franchise. Here’s what Mr. Cruise had to say about his latest project:

Q. Tell us what was the inspiration behind this third installment? Why did you want to make another "Mission Impossible?"

A. I really wanted the film to be more personal, this one. When I started "Mission Impossible," I was always excited about it. I’ve never done sequels. I always thought…but with Mission Impossible it always had that potential that there’s a new adventure to go on. A different city. I’m fascinated by this genre and this world. And JJ Abrams, when he came on board, I just… I was so excited because here’s this filmmaker…I had seen his work before. Here’s this filmmaker who also loves this genre, knows it better than anyone, has this incredibly unique voice. He can tell a story the way… I don’t know if you’ve read the pulps of the 20s and 30s. It’s very tight…you know, the great ones… Tight story, layered, resonant, relevant, but not pretentious. And I thought, ‘Wow, the potential of this, to be able to give an audience a summer experience which I love.’

I remember the films that I…even now go to in summer…I can’t wait. Once Christmas is over, you have all the wonderful Christmas films, and then I’m looking to ‘OK, what’s coming out this summer?’ You start planning and I start thinking about it. I get excited about it. I remember as a kid I would cut grass and dig ditches so that I could have that money so that when the summer came I could go to the movies several times...the ones that I liked. And that’s what I want, you know, what I hope an audience will sit down and just really… I want to kick off their summer.

Q. Well, you seem to have a certain knack of working with some very talented and various themed directors. JJ… a first time director…He’s a very like-minded soul to yours. He’s very enthusiastic, very amicable, and very much loves the process of making TV and it seems of making movies. Tell us how important that chemistry is to you, especially for this, when this was your first producing bow. Initially, for a star and director to get along, especially with a big movie like this, how important is it for you to click with someone who is like-minded.

A. Well, what I work at…I’m the actor. And I’m going to do my job. I’m not going to direct the movie. If I wanted to direct the movie, I would direct the movie. I wanted JJ to direct the movie. I wanted JJ Abrams’ "Mission Impossible." And I work with people that I respect, and I expect them to do their jobs, and I will do mine. And I’m there as a producer in any way to help, and I produced this with Paula Wagner, my producing partner. That collaboration…no one makes a film by themselves. It’s understanding what is JJ’s vision? What does he want? Are we aligned? And to keep that alignment there. I do want that chemistry when I’m working. When I work with Steven Spielberg who… it has that same…you want that chemistry because he’s going on that …you want the contribution to the story. I felt that with Steven and I felt it immediately with JJ Abrams. That’s what it’s about. I want the experience. You never know how something is going to turn out.

A lot of my life is put into my films. I love making movies. I love it. I’m born to make film. (laughs) This is what I do. And it’s my family and movies, you know. And working with JJ, he has that enthusiasm, but he’s so competent. Here’s a man who did 3-D ILM shots himself. Here’s a man who… it’s not just television and movies. He’s a creative force. Really. If you see the art that he creates all the time. He’s drawn…he’s just literally a creative force. And his ideas of… and his discipline of story and structure and storytelling. You know, some people can have great ideas and then you have to kind of go, ‘OK. Great idea.’ But then you have to incorporate it, and it’s like OK, they get off track with the story some times. But his ideas are right on story.

That’s what I want in a film. I want that collaboration. I expect everyone that I’m working with down to craft service, the PA’s… I expect everyone to do their job and enjoy it. Let’s get real. I have the best…I can’t even call it a job…I have the best life in the world. I get to do something I love. I think it’s a privilege to be able to make movies. And it’s something that I’ve never taken it for granted. And I get that with JJ. So yes, I do want that chemistry. That’s what I’m looking for. It is that entire experience that I’m looking to have when I make a movie.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t challenges either because it can be very… You know, there’s problems. That’s the fun of it. People think of the huge problems that you have to all come together to solve this problem. I think that’s one of my favorite things about making films. Because it’s ‘Here we are. JJ has created this sequence.’ Or JJ’s going to say, ‘Now we have to call all the guys and say, ‘OK. How do we do this?’’ And getting everyone, all these great minds and these artists together and we’re figuring out how are we going to create this together to make this. And then coming down to talking about the conceptual, emotional feeling that we want from the film.

And then you have this scene with Michelle Monaghan and I on top of the roof. And we spent a year, a year and a half, thinking about or talking about this moment and what’s this scene, and then suddenly it’s not…it just evolves. You create it on the moment and it becomes something that’s even…. It’s everything you wanted, but even more. And it’s different than you had ever thought it was going to be. I love the surprises and the collaboration of filmmaking. I really enjoy that.

Q. What’s it like doing "Mission Impossible 3" with director JJ Abrams?

A. It’s totally unique. This is JJ Abrams’ "Mission Impossible." When JJ came on, I said, ‘Look. There’s no constraints. I want to know what you want to do with this. I want to work with you. I believe in you as a filmmaker.’ It was fun creating it together and designing it around… Everytime JJ would create a sequence, I would think, ‘Man. I can’t wait to do this. How are we going to do this? I can’t wait to figure out how we’re going to do this.’ And that’s part of the fun of it. My intention and my hope is always to have more personal aspect to the picture. Action is fine. Action was actually the last thing that we talked about with "Mission Impossible." It’s not the first thing. We didn’t talk about action sequences. We actually made an agreement not to discuss any action sequences at all until we nailed the story.

Q. What about your co-star Michelle Monaghan?

A. She brings an obvious beauty, a real sense of humanity, decency. (She’s a) very talented actress. I met her actually when I was shooting "War of the Worlds." You just want to be around her, you enjoy being around her. She’s just a lovely actress and very real.

Q. And Philip Seymour Hoffman?

A. You look at the range from the nurse in "Magnolia." You look at all of his characters. He’s just one of the great American actors. Philip Seymour Hoffman. And then you see him play this guy, this bad guy, who is a bad ass. This guy is…he’s just…he’s beyond tough. And how Philip plays him is just... It was so much fun playing the scenes with him.

Tom also talked about the intricate stuntwork used in some of the film’s main set pieces including a complicated sequence on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge that required him to escape a rocket hit on one of the vehicles. In it, he is lifted and blown across the bridge by the force of the explosion into a parked car. "Working with Vic (legendary action and second unit director Vic Armstrong) and JJ, the whole stunt where I get blown into the car, we came up with that whole idea the day before. JJ and I were walking and looking at the animatic (a movie of the storyboards). And I said, ‘Well, how can I get blown off?’ I kind of got Vic and Joey (stunt coordinator Joey Box)… ‘I want to get blown off my feet. When the missile hits, I want to get blown off my feet. Is there anything I can slam into? I want an awkward body position…something that’s going to look really violent to get a clean response from the concussion of the missile hit. What do we do?’ Now that is a live stunt. That is not CGI. And so these guys are so good that they came up with how we can do it."

According to Armstrong, "He hits it so hard he blows out the back window. We controlled the rig – on explosion, we ratcheted him into the side of the car. And he really hit it – he went in horizontally, flying through the air. The impact dented the door on the vehicle. And then, we did the stunt two or three more times. Tom really is game – if any stuntman had that shot on their resume, they would be very, very proud of it."

Another pivotal stunt involved a jack-knifing semi that slides over Tom in traffic. Armstrong describes the sequence, "For this stunt, Tom lay in the street as a jackknifed rig, which is a forty foot truck with a tractor unit on the front of it, drives over him. If any of those cylinders failed, the truck would straighten out and flatten Tom. To test it out, I laid under it once and felt it go over my head; it was a very scary experience. For the real thing, I was standing on a hill beside one of the cameras and it seemed that the truck was driving straight at him forever before it started jackknifing around. You can imagine how I was feeling."

Tom explains, "Right after we did the semi, then I have to run through traffic. And we had so many cars and they were hauling through there. And there’s about six different points that I have to do in one take. I know that. And it’s got to be the right car that I’m going through and going over traffic and they’re hauling."

Another dramatic stunt in "Mission Impossible 3" involves a jump off an eight-foot building. According to Armstrong, "He jumps and free-falls for about fifty feet. It was essential that Tom perform the stunt – not only do we see the jump and the fall, but Tom acting as the character falling. It wasn’t about just having the guts to shut his eyes and jump on a bungee jump; Tom not only had to jump, but act as well. It’s one of the most amazing things I have seen an actor do."

Another stunt sequence takes place in a factory in Berlin when Tom’s character, Ethan, rescues IMF agent Linsey Ferris played by Keri Russell. For Keri Russell, who had no major stunt experience before taking on MI3, Cruise’s expertise was essential. "Jumping off a six story building isn’t exactly something I had done before," Russell laughs. "It was very scary the first time – my heart was pounding – but having Tom with me really helped. He said, ‘It’s a breeze, let’s do it. Are you excited?’ And we jumped."

In one of the final and most exhilarating action sequences of the film, Tom must sprint through a Chinese village as his character, Ethan, desperately attempts to track down bad guy Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman) who holds his wife hostage. The fast action is expertly captured by director Abrams using a motion-controlled, specially rigged Spidercam. Tom explains, "That whole scene where I have to come out of a window and jump down those buildings and down on the bridge. That was tricky. That final day of the sprint... I was excited to do that. I couldn’t wait to do that sprint. But I was happy when it was over, when I finally got that shot. And I had been really working for that shot for, I don’t know, 7 months, training for that shot of what I wanted … I always had in my mind that moment and JJ… the shot that he designed and how he directed it. I just thought he nailed it. That’s one of those things that I look at. I’m proud of that moment. I know what we all did to get that moment. This is why I make movies. This is a blast. It doesn’t get any better than that." In closing be sure and read my Mission Impossible 3 Movie review and when your done reading it be sure to watch the movie and come back and write your own review!