After shooting on a train the other day in Norway, Mission: Impossible 7 production has moved to Italy and here are Tom Cruise and Hayley Atwell shooting a car chase scene – what kind of other scene would it be involving a vehicle where Tom Cruise is concerned? It’s never going to be an easy breeze of a ride! – where they’re handcuffed together.
Few details about Hayley’s character have been revealed but it’s confirmed that she’s actually in this Mission movie and the next so obviously she’s significant and director Christopher McQuarrie described the person she’s playing as a “destructive force of nature”. He also said that you can feel the “vibration” between her and Tom. Oh really?
“For Hayley to exist in a franchise where other women had come and made statements, we said ‘well it can’t be like that.’ We don’t want Hayley to be a repeat of any character that’s come before. What’s left? What’s unique and what’s new? We wrote a scene about what we imagined the spark of that character to be, and that’s what Hayley came in and read. What we discovered there is this energy that Hayley had, specifically an energy with Tom. It’s not a vibe, it’s literally a vibration. You felt it and you were like, ‘I don’t know what to make of this person. – Source
Onscreen chemistry obviously doesn’t have to mean offscreen chemistry (thanks Joey Tribbiani) but, you know, when you say sh-t like that and it’s show business, there’s always speculation. And while there’s not much information about Hayley’s romantic status and Tom Cruise is one of the most secretive players in Hollywood, I wonder how long before some magazine decides to make it a story.
If we’re talking about female actors and Mission: Impossible though, it’s hard not to think of Thandie Newton, especially this year, since that amazing Vulture interview just happened a few months ago and she shared her experience working on M:I2 and Tom. Remember the pimple?!
Thandie found Tom really intimidating. She said she was afraid of him, that he was so intense, so stressed, and that he was a “very dominant individual”. That was 20 years ago. A lot has changed since then. A lot has changed in the way we process Tom Cruise since then. So it’ll be interesting to hear more about his dynamic with Hayley and if she’s vibing with him, literally, as McQuarrie is telling us, what that really looks like.
