Mission: Impossible — Fallout remains the standard of the franchise, but Dead Reckoning Part One comes quite close to reaching those heights. A big part of that is one of the film's supporting characters, Paris, played by Guardians of the Galaxy star Pom Klementieff.

Just as Henry Cavill did in Fallout, Klementieff steals the show in the latest Mission: Impossible film. It's not just her intimidating presence — she slowly becomes more unhinged during the car chase which is scary — but it's the action sequences where the actress gets to stand out.

The assassin, who's chasing after Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and Grace (Hayley Atwell). At one point in the film, the IMF crew heads to a masquerade party to meet with Alanna Mistopolis (Vanessa Kirby). Paris is there as well, sporting a white face and a single black teardrop falling from her eye.

While Cavill had the iconic bicep reload in the last Mission: Impossible film, Klementieff also wanted to add some traits to her performance to help Paris stand out. “I mean, there's a lot of ideas I came up with,” she said in our chat about Dead Reckoning Part One. “For example, the makeup in the Venice [scenes], you know, with the white and the teardrop, it was my idea because I thought that the characters were supposed to go to a party in Venice — a masquerade party — so I thought that instead of a wearing a mask, she would draw a mask on her face.”

She continued, “And I think that I wanted to bring something a little bit eerie and strange and a little bit scary because I don't speak a lot, but I wanted to bring some light to the face and something a little bit melancholic with a teardrop, you know?”

In terms of specific inspirations for this look, Klementoff said, “I was inspired by pantomime and by this character from the Comédie de l'Arte called Pierrot Lunaire with the white makeup and with a teardrop, and he looks like a cute little pantomime clown, but like with sadness, you know? So I thought it connected with the character.”

As things go in action films, the party soon becomes a battlefield and a fight breaks out. Paris does not sit on the sidelines for this and said, “And then with the fight, I sweat so much, it looks like I'm a monster too, so it's kind of cool too,” with a wide grin across her face.

Pom Klementieff is most known for playing Mantis in the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise. She now jumps over to the Mission: Impossible franchise in the latest installment, Dead Reckoning Part One. Her character, Paris, stands out as one of the highlights of the film and is one of the best supporting characters introduced in recent memory. Now we know where some of the inspiration — at least visually — came from.

Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One is in theaters now.