Why This ‘Mission Impossible’ Star Called Tom Cruise a ‘Leader’
Tom Cruise isn’t only famous for the Mission Impossible franchise. The actor is recognized for other action-packed movies and dramatic roles, such as Top Gun, War of the Worlds, A Few Good Men, and Rain Man. However, there is no denying that the actor can “Cruise” his way through hazardous stunts as agent Ethan Hunt.
Aside from Cruise’s daring stunt work, he has also built a reputation on film sets. A Mission Impossible III star discussed her experience in working with the high-profile actor.
Maggie Q worked with Tom Cruise in ‘Mission Impossible III’
Maggie Q has performed multiple action-based roles, including Live Free or Die Hard, the Divergent series, and Netflix’s Designated Survivor. She played Zhen Lei, one of the agents helping Ethan Hunt in Mission Impossible III.
In the third installment, Ethan left the Impossible Missions Force and is engaged to Julia, unaware of his real career. Once Ethan is told that one of his proteges was captured, the IMF assembled a team of agents. Ethan literally has to “Hunt” him down Owen Davian, the antagonist of the film.
Unfortunately, Davian uses Julia as leverage, complicating matters further for Ethan. Zhen, Declan, and Luther help Ethan race against the clock to save his fiancee.
One of Maggie Q’s most noteworthy scenes is when she regrettably explodes the Lamborghini, saying, “It’s such a nice car.”
Why is Tom Cruise a ‘leader’ according to Maggie Q?
In an interview with Collider, Q discussed her new film Protege. She also opened up about Cruise’s on-set demeanor and why she had “never seen somebody who was so encouraging of those around him.”
“Tom’s a leader,” the Live Free or Die Hard actor revealed. “And again, when you work with people at his level, there is a reason they are where they are, period. There’s no question. He’s not my best friend, so I’m not talking about him personally, but I am talking about him as a professional. On-set, his enthusiasm never waivers. I’ve never seen it waiver.”
Q clarified that some other celebrities don’t exude the same level of devotion as Cruise does. Later, she recalled the moment when she couldn’t find her trailer on the set of Mission Impossible III. She assumed she’d have a smaller one because she was “lower down on the call sheet.” However, it turned out that Cruise replaced her trailer with a larger one.
The actor reminisced her conversation with Cruise’s producing partner, who told Q that Cruise said, “Absolutely not. You’re getting rid of this [trailer], and you’re getting [Q] the same trailer everyone else has because she’s part of this movie, and I don’t want her coming to set feeling like she’s less than. It’s not okay.”
Q said she felt “included” as a result of Cruise’s actions.
Tom Cruise performs major stunts in ‘Mission Impossible’
The first Mission Impossible looked daunting enough in terms of stunt work. But Cruise has kicked the danger up a notch on every new film. The actor was actually lowered on a cable in the iconic 1996 movie scene.
This scene, however, was only a predecessor for Cruise’s future stunt work. With any classic Cruise stunt, there are typically no green screens or CGI.
In Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, viewers remember that the actor climbed, swung, and ran across the world’s tallest building in Dubai. The Jerry Maguire actor also gripped the side of an airplane and performed a HALO skydive filming Mission Impossible: Fallout.
According to the behind-the-scenes footage, Cruise prepared for the high altitude scene through training. He became the first actor to perform this stunt.
His upcoming seventh Mission Impossible includes an even more dangerous stunt: he drives a motorbike down a ramp and off a cliff in Norway, letting go mid-air before his parachute deploys.
