“I know there are people out there who actually think about giving themselves a name,” laughed Maggie Q before adding, “I'm not one of those people. What happened was when I was living and working in Hong Kong, one of the biggest newspapers there when they first started writing about me, around seven/eight years ago, they couldn't pronounce the last name. I think to them it was just like, ‘Oh, uh.’ And so they printed Q - Maggie Q. Because it was a big paper, everyone followed them.”
Landing the Role of Zhen in Mission Impossible III: Maggie Q said that strangely enough, they contacted her while she was working in Hong Kong. “It’s funny because a lot of people ask me why I was cast in the role, which really I don't know. But one thing I do remember is when I came into casting in LA, I was really, really ill. JJ sat me down and said, ‘Look, I know it's hard for you to concentrate, but this is what I'm looking for before we begin.’ So I sat there listening to him and he said, ‘I've cast lots of people. I know what I want and I have not found it yet because the woman that I want in this role is the woman who is strong enough to be at Tom's level, at Ving [Rhame’s] level and Jonny [Rhys Meyers’] level, a woman who can be present in this group. Basically a group like that, it's a pretty intimidating group of men. You know, you have this very imposing black guy, a wonderful actor, imposing figure. You have Tom and then you have Jonny - a very strong team. I can't have a woman in this role who gets lost among these men. I can't have a woman in this role who speaks with Tom Cruise and people can't believe she's at his level.’ And that's what he told me during the casting.”
The Only Woman on an All-Male Team: Maggie Q’s surrounded by an overabundance of testosterone in Mission Impossible 3, a situation she found to be pretty interesting. “By the time we were three-quarters of the way done, I would tease Tom and Ving and Jonny and tell them after this movie I was going to do a chick flick after all this maleness. It was interesting because you would think that I would feel out of place and that I was the only girl and people would treat me a certain way, but the funny and the great thing is that being the only girl, they all take care of me really well - which is funny because I think they were trying to compensate. I think they realized that I might feel a little bit, you know, not really substantial so they really, really sort of watched over me. It was great.”
Working with JJ Abrams: Abrams is known for creating strong female characters and Maggie Q found working with him to be an incredible experience. “JJ is the kind of director -- first of all, he's a director with no ego. He's a director who has a very consistent attitude when he's at work. He's funny, he's brilliant, and he's a combination of all these really great things,” explained Maggie Q. “I always on the film had this sense of, you know, we're doing something special here. …JJ is the type of person who sees the bigger picture before anyone else does. It sounds simple, but not all directors do that.”
Getting Into Character: Maggie Q said she did and she didn’t do research for this particular role. “JJ wanted, he sort of wanted to go back to the series - kind of emulate what the spirit of what Mission: Impossible was about from the early days. That's sort of what he wanted. But then at the same time, he wanted a very modern rendition of what they used to do, something that would appeal. And obviously we're not living in the '60s anymore. Our audiences are getting younger. He wanted kind of a version of that, but yet something modern enough to where young people go and see it and they get it. For young people who weren't alive at the time when the series was happening.”
Physically Preparing to Take on the Part of a Secret Agent: “Well Jackie [Chan’s] actually my boss in Hong Kong. I worked under him for years and was trained by his stunt guys and whatnot. …I don't know anyone who works harder than Jackie or anyone who deserves what they have more than Jackie. But because I've worked in Hong Kong and under his team, I was prepared for the kind of training that we had in this film.
Obviously the level of training is different every time you work with a different stunt coordinator. It's going to be an entirely different experience, even though it's all fighting. I trained for weeks and weeks before this film started. I trained throughout the duration of the film, so in total it was about six months non-stop because with action, you just can't train and then stop and expect your level to be at the level that they need. You have to keep soldiering on throughout the whole film.”
