MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING Director Offers Insight on Hayley Atwell's Mystery Character

Director Christopher McQuarrie’s Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One is headed our way, and we have been able to see some awesome footage teasing this chapter of the story, but one element from the film has been kept under wraps, and that’s the character played by Captain America actress Hayley Atwell .

In a recent interview with Empire Magazine just a month ahead of the film’s release, McQuarrie opened up about the character played by Atwell, saying:

“Hayley’s character didn’t have a name for a long, long time. She has her own objective, and she more or less becomes ensnared in this movie. What you have here is a character who absolutely does not belong in a Mission: Impossible movie, and she’s doing everything she can to get out of it.”

Atwell’s character was eventually given a name, Grace, who the actor describes as "inconsistent" and "an agent of chaos." The role involved months of exhausting training in precision driving for a chaotic centrepiece car chase around Rome, which you can check out the photo of above. The job was made even more difficult by "this fucking Fiat we nicknamed Tricksy because she had a mind of her own," McQuarrie explained. And as if that wasn’t enough, Atwell was also working alongside Tom Cruise, whose stunt chops are several leagues beyond your average action star. Providing insight into Cruise’s mindset, Atwell reveals that, “Tom would often say, ‘Don’t be safe, be competent.’ That was a great mantra for me."

I guess safety first is out the window when you’re working with Tom Cruise! Dead Reckoning Part One arrives in cinemas on July 11th.