Henry Czerny reprises his role as IMF chief Eugene Kittridge, 25 years after playing him in the first feature film of the now multi-billion dollar franchise. In an interview, the actor draws an interesting analogy and looks back on more than half a century Impossible Mission.
In 1996, Eugene Kittridge suspected Ethan Hunt of being the mole responsible for the destruction of IMF forces. Today in Mission: Impossible – Death Toll Part One, the two men are still not friends. But shhh!, there’s no way to divulge the twists that Tom Cruise (is Ethan Hunt dead or not???), director and co-writer Christopher McQuarrie and the production team have in store for fans.
A joke
AFP
When his agent called him in January 2020 to say that Christopher McQuarrie wanted to bring Eugene Kittridge back, Henry Czerny — who “has only fond memories of Montreal” from studying drama there — thought he was joking. But no…
“When I asked if there was a script, my agent said Chris wanted to talk to me about it. The next day Chris called me. He was in Venice exploring places. He explained to me that he wanted to first hire the actors and then adapt the script to what we wanted to bring to our characters,” he explained in an interview with QMI Agency.
“I accept. But then something happened that significantly delayed the start of production… and I think we all remember what it was about. When I finally got to London, I had a chat with Chris. I decided to do a I imagined that for 25 years he had been going through all government agencies and studying how they worked, and the reason he was doing this exercise was because Ethan Hunt had taught Kittridge how to spot a perpetrator.
“What we see in Death Toll Part One is a Kittridge that’s a lot more serious because he has a better understanding of how the world works. And it’s not particularly pretty…although there’s always hope,” he added.
Henry Czerny shot his scenes in London before flying to Norway, but unfortunately “the scenes shot there were cut out in editing because they weren’t necessary to the plot.”
A gourmet meal
In Mission: Impossible – Death toll, Part One, the locations set the mood. Abu Dhabi Airport makes for rhythmic, efficient moments. The chase through the streets of Rome is full of humor, Norway brings seriousness and majesty to the stunt of Tom Cruise parachuting down a gorge on a motorcycle.
Tom Cruise in New York on July 10th. Derrick Salters / WENN
“What we have on the plate in this Mission: Impossible is like the sauce of a French dish that is reduced and that we can taste for 2 hours and 43 minutes. And no taste nuance, no aroma of this plate is superfluous,” said Henry Czerny.
“Like a five-course French meal, each dish has its own personality,” he added of the filming locations. Each dish enhances the meal as a whole. And I also encourage everyone to come and try it on the biggest plate possible,” he then hinted at the IMAX format.
Mission: Impossible – Death toll, Part One hits theaters across the province on July 12.