I didn’t necessarily think the first movie I would get a chance to direct would be something as large as this one, but the crew was so incredible. Tom and his producing partner Paula Wagner were so supportive from the beginning that I always felt - and I believe the whole crew always felt - incredibly supported and safe, which always allows for more creativity. So the whole experience was great and I honestly never doubted that I could do it. I actually felt incredibly comfortable doing it. It was a fun challenge.”
Casting the IMF Team Members: Mission Impossible III is more of a team effort onscreen than the previous two films. JJ Abrams explained that decision: “What I wanted to make sure is that we were casting actors and writing parts that were as strong as they could be because when you’ve got Tom Cruise, it’s that blinding star power. You can’t put him on screen with someone who can’t play at that level or they’ll get drowned out and the movie won’t have a spark. So you bring in actors like Laurence Fishburne and Billy Crudup and Jonathan Rhys Meyers, and certainly Philip Seymour Hoffman, and you find people like Michelle Monaghan or Maggie Q. I got to bring Keri Russell back who I’d worked with on Felicity.
It was incredibly important to me for not just the team, but for all the supporting actors, that they be not just wonderful actors but have a certain level of that charisma. And it was great to see Tom with all these actors because he, I’m sure, could feel that same energy coming from them and I think it only made him better. It certainly makes the film better, populating it with people who are that compelling to watch.”
JJ Abrams continued. “I wanted to make sure that very quickly everyone felt incredibly distinct. What I love about Jonathan Rhys Meyers is he sort of felt to me, in many ways, the Irish version of where Tom was in the first Mission movie, which is a little bit more of a cocky guy who is at an age where he hasn’t been doing this for very long. I wanted to have with Maggie Q, I really wanted to have an incredibly strong female, powerful voice and character in someone who was as lethal as she is brave as she is vulnerable. Maggie brought all that. She also looks incredibly good in that red dress that she wears to, of all places, The Vatican.
I knew we had Ving [Rhames] coming back who I had loved in so much of the work he had done in other films, but I felt like he still hadn’t been as relatable as I wanted him to be in the first two films. I just think he so brought incredible personality to the role of Luther. So it was just important that Tom’s character be surrounded by distinct and unique and compelling other characters.”
Getting Geeky on Us: The gadgets and disguises play more prominent roles in MI3. From creating a mask of the villain’s face to calibrating a wire, the little details are actually explained in this third film of the franchise.
“Thank you for mentioning that little calibrating thing on the wire,” said Abrams. “That kind of stuff to me, it was so easy not to do that stuff but I thought part of the fun of Mission Impossible the series for me was always not just the what and the why, but the how. I just loved watching this team using that kind of equipment and using it with such a precision that I wished I had that kind of equipment and I wish I knew how the hell to do that stuff. It’s easy to skip that stuff and go right to the end game and get to the point, but I feel like part of getting to know and love the team is seeing them do their job, and appreciating why they have been chosen to be out in the field.
Anyway, doing that kind of stuff with the masks or doing the little moments with the calibration thing here and there or when Tom puts the cross on the wall, transmitting that, or when we see Ving open up the drill case… All these little details were, to me, the things that it felt when I watch the show, it respected the audience and their ability to track the sort of machinations of that kind of operation. I just feel like if you lose that stuff, you’re not sort of getting to really see the details that matter. So it was really important to me that we do that stuff.”
Page 2: Tom Cruise, Publicity, and the Stunts of MI3
