You never know your limits until you work with Tom Cruise. For Hayley Atwell, she met that limit on the set of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, filming on the frigid expanse of the Arctic Ocean.
“We were on a frozen sea at minus 40°C. At one point, we were standing in front of a glacier that you could hear cracking and we see a polar bear walk by,” Atwell tells The National.
“Meanwhile, I’m having to ensure that I don’t expose my skin for too long to avoid getting frostbite and all the time I’m focused on improvising a scene with a woman whose language I don’t share.
“When you’re watching this movie, you’re really watching people push themselves way beyond what even they think they’re capable of doing.”
There’s no acting school – no school of any kind – that prepares you for an experience like that. It’s gruelling work – months of your life that will end up as only a few fleeting moments on screen. That’s a challenge that not all are up for, which is why many actors and filmmakers don’t stick around for more than one Mission: Impossible film.
The question, of course, is why Atwell, 43, would put herself through all that for six years – both in Final Reckoning and its predecessor Dead Reckoning. And the answer is Tom Cruise.
It’s something Atwell didn’t fully process until she was at the film’s world premiere in Tokyo this month. Before the film started, she watched Cruise from afar as he talked to the fans, the event staff and security guards. She saw his furrowed brow and sincere smile as he listened deeply to each of them and thanked them profusely for their work and their support.
“I really felt so emotional on that red carpet,” Atwell says. “What is often talked about is how impressive and disciplined and committed he is. And he is all of those things every single day.
“The thing that is not spoken about as much is his kindness. He has this ability to really meet people where they’re at, and get to know them, and read them on their level and their terms. He was so inclusive of my family being around as well. Working with Tom has meant so much to me.
"We all dedicated our lives and our time and our skills and our talents to showing up for him because we knew how much he was showing up for us, and for the audience."
When you’re around people like that, anything feels possible. And it’s a feeling that doesn’t fade. Three months ago, Atwell was starring in a major production of William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing opposite Tom Hiddleston in London’s West End. And mid-run, she got a call from the film’s director, Christopher McQuarrie.
“We were doing eight shows a week. Sunday was my day off, and there were about three Sundays towards the end of the run where I ended up doing Mission: Impossible stunts and scenes,” says Atwell. “One of the first scenes in the movie I actually just did a few months ago.”
Things like that happened so often that Atwell found herself in a state of constant readiness over the past three years as they continued production on the eighth film in the series, in which Cruise and his collaborators move heaven and earth to try to top themselves with each subsequent instalment.
“I was wrapped on this movie 14 times. The first time, I got emotional. They gave me lots of big hugs. Then the next day, when they called again, I was like: ‘Oh, this is awkward. I’ve got to go back and say hi again.’
“By the sixth or seventh wrap, it became a running joke. They’d say: ‘That’s a wrap on Hayley Atwell, see you next week.’”
Even now, with the film in cinemas, it’s hard for Atwell to believe it’s over.
“This has been six years of my life. They welcomed me in and wanted me to thrive – actively wanted me to do well. I was encouraged to come up with ideas myself, and I was a part of every conversation. They gave me so much freedom.
“I can’t believe this is my last time doing all of this,” Atwell adds, before correcting herself. “Well – probably the last time. Maybe. Until I get a call for the next one.”
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is in cinemas now across the Middle East
