When actors test a movie, they’re usually placed in a room with another actor and chat with each other to test things like chemistry, line delivery and more.
That’s not really the case with the ‘Mission: Impossible’ franchise, as British actress Hayley Atwell’s screen test for her role in the upcoming two-part film ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning’ involved a two-hour screen test which was all stunt choreography to “check out my natural style” she told the Telegraph.
The film’s writer-director, Christopher McQuarrie, says this process shapes the character: “We look for an actress that we want to work with, and we’ll adapt the character to her.”
Once hired, she went through an additional five months of stunt training and from there various aspects of the character emerged:
“As early as physical training, we discovered that I learned quickly through sleight of hand and using a prop – so my character is an opportunist who can take an inanimate object and weaponize it. , rather than someone who is skilled and qualified and formally trained.
From there was born this incoherent character: someone spontaneous, quite unpredictable, but not calculating. Tom and McQuarrie were interested in finding a different tone for this film than we’d seen before – and a character who had a relationship with Tom that felt more cat-and-mouse, two people who, through circumstance and pressure, come together into each other’s business, but they are exasperated with each other.
So that’s where the chemistry between them will be, but also some of the comedic elements of the movie.”
We’ll be able to see the results for ourselves when “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” hits theaters on July 12.