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For Hayley Atwell, she was joining a huge Mission: Impossible franchise for Dead Reckoning Part One. It might be a bit nerve wracking for some, but for Atwell, she admitted Tom Cruise and the rest of the cast and crew were very welcoming.
“You're not coming into something that's intimidating,” Atwell told People of the Mission: Impossible franchise. “They're literally going, ‘Oh, my God, we're so happy to have you. Come and join us.’”
“I loved it, I really did. And you could see from all the actors involved in it — some that are newer than others, some that have been there from the beginning — there's a real affection from [writer-director Christopher McQuarrie] and Tom and the environment that they create… There's no mistake, there's no sense of failure, there's no judgment,” she continued.
Before joining the film, Atwell did a lot of stunt training.
“I trained for five months before we began principal photography,” Atwell said. “And part of that was to work out where my natural skillset lay and having Wade Eastwood, our stunt choreographer, working out what would be kind of a fun physical dynamic and where the chemistry would be with Tom.”
Chemistry was a big deal for Atwell and Cruise. Atwell played Grace, a burglar and reluctant collaborator alongside Agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise). “We were fully engaged with each other and present in a high intensity environment,” she said. “The camera's kind of going, ‘Look, guys, they belong as a team working together, but they just don't know it yet.’ And she certainly doesn't want it. And he's like, ‘She's exasperating.’”
See Hayley Atwell in Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One, in theaters now.