New Details on Hayley Atwell's Character in MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 7 who is Described as "A Destructive Force of Nature"
The Mission: Impossible franchise never disappoints and we can expect to see some pretty incredible things as the story continues with Mission: Impossible 7 and Mission: Impossible 8. Christopher McQuarrie is back to direct and Tom Cruise is back as Ethan Hunt doing all kinds of crazy-ass death-defying stunts. Most of the original cast will return and they will be joined by Agent Carter star Hayley Atwell.
Not much information has been revealed regarding Atwell’s character, but McQuarrie and Atwell recently appeared on Light the Fuse podcast where they offered some cool and interesting insight.
While talking about writing for familiar characters like Ethan Hunt, Luther Stickell and Benji Dunn, McQuarrie says that Atwell's character will be a destructive force and that she will impact the core team in ways that will "evolve" the franchise, take it to the next level, and keep it from getting stale:
“You got to find ways to evolve those characters, but not so much that they cease to be those characters, that they lose their familiarity and their continuity. Now in this one, we’ve found something really, really great for the core team, and what I can tell you is that they then encounter this other destructive force of nature in the form of Hayley.”
Atwell admits that she still isn’t sure which side of the IMF she falls on. She doesn’t know if she’s a hero or a villain. She explains, “I’ve been living in an existential crisis since October, going ‘who am I? who am I?’. An actor in search of a character.”
Even though she’s described as this destructive force, that doesn’t necessarily mean she’ll be a villain. But, it sounds like either way, she’s going to find herself standing in the way of Ethan Hunt. McQuarrie says that she will test every member of the IMF, and here’s how Atwell described her arc:
“There’s ambiguity…the interesting thing we’re exploring is her resistance to a situation she finds herself in. How she starts off, where she becomes. The journey of what she comes into and what is asked of her and potentially where she ends up.”
McQuarrie goes on to talk about creating Atwell’s character and how he wanted to bring the franchise a female character unlike anything the franchise has seen before:
“For Hayley to exist in a franchise where other women had come and made statements, we said ‘well it can’t be like that.’ We don’t want Hayley to be a repeat of any character that’s come before. What’s left? What’s unique and what’s new? We wrote a scene about what we imagined the spark of that character to be, and that’s what Hayley came in and read. What we discovered there is this energy that Hayley had, specifically an energy with Tom. It’s not a vibe, it’s literally a vibration. You felt it and you were like, ‘I don’t know what to make of this person.’”
The filmmaker went on to talk about the physical training that Atwell has had to go through for her character. Her screen test alone included a “two-hour stunt audition” and some crazy knife-wielding skills. McQuarrie said:
“It is truly something to see….the work that you’ve done, the dedication you’ve shown, the focus, and quite frankly, your frightening talent with a knife, are all stuff that I’m very, very, very excited for people to see. It’s a very different side of Hayley.”
Simon Pegg was on the podcast as well and he jumped in the conversation to say, “[Stunt coordinator Wade Eastwood] showed me a video of you doing your training. You’re super fast. Proper Matrix shit going on.”
Well, shit! I don’t know about you, but I can’t freakin’ wait to see Atwell in action in these next two Mission: Impossible films! It sounds like she is going to rip things apart!