Mission: Impossible is a series known for its big-budget, deadly stunts, but sometimes there’s nothing more suspenseful than a good old-fashioned, face-to-face scene.
Actor Henry Czerny brought it to the first installment of the series, released in 1996. Czerny, who played the domineering Kittredge overseer of the Impossible Mission Squad, mocked star Tom Cruise with the most deliciously disparaging words, and their clever altercation was flagrant. A restaurant in Prague was shot at an intoxicating slant angle by director Brian De Palma and was one of the highlights of the film.
Six movies later, in the new Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1, Kittredge is once again sneering and bickering with Cruise superagent Ethan Hunt. Christopher McQuarrie, who directed the final three films in the series, said he intended to bring Czerny back to direct.
“Henry’s Kittredge is not a villain,” McCurry wrote in an email. “He’s not even an adversary. He’s a fine opponent who walks the line between the guys we want to hate and the guys we want to like. He’s a bastard, but he’s a bastard we want on our side.”
When 64-year-old Czerny took part in the new work, he was surprised at how fluid the production was. McQuarrie and Cruise knew what pieces of the action set they wanted to include, but the scenes that stitched them together were still untouched. Much of the explanation that sets up these sequences ultimately fell to Czerny. Czerny can deliver information that sets the stakes with musical grace.
If that’s the distinctive flavor of Czerny, he’d be happy to serve it. “I munched on ‘The Bear’ last night,” Cerny said in a video call last week. “And the image of ‘Mission: Impossible’ is always talked about as beautiful French food, in that everything is reduced so as not to spoil the flavor.” Very complex, unique and independent. “
Below is an edited excerpt of a conversation that took place before SAG-AFTRA went on strike.
Chris McQuarrie said that since taking over directing this series, he’s been looking for the right time to bring you back. Did you know that it is under consideration?
I had no idea. In fact, I got the call almost 25 years ago from the day Brian De Palma and Tom decided to make me their Kittredge. In January 2020 McQ wanted to talk to me about bringing Kittredge back. I thought it was just a joke, but he said, “No, seriously.” So I spoke to him the next day and he said, ‘We haven’t decided what to do with the script yet.’ I thought: “Yeah, there should be a script somewhere in the bottom drawer.” Come on, you just haven’t told me what you want to do with that guy. ’ But the script is very fluid.
What did they say about why they brought you back?
I think he was brought in as the Ethan shoe burr we remember. The original idea was that he would represent bureaucracies, CEOs, etc. who didn’t like being human. So to Ethan, he’s an asset in the world. And to some extent, the American public that Kittredge believes he represents, they are his stockholders. He doesn’t like that they are indebted to one person. But who else are you going to call?
How has he changed since we saw him in the first movie?
I asked MacQ, “Okay, what do you think he’s been doing for 25 years?” I was. At the same time, McQ has such a broad focus that actors are allowed to bring those details to the screen. Try doing some version of what you think he was doing. “
So we had an idea of what we were going to do before we arrived in London for the fitting of the film, which was really unscripted at the time. I thought Kittredge was educated by Ethan 25 years before him, so he thought. “Okay, I’m going to work at every other agency in Washington because I don’t like being educated by people younger than me.” I think I worked everywhere and came back more enlightened to run Impossible Mission Force. He has a sad yet wise knowledge of how America’s intelligence services work and who they work for.
How did you evolve in terms of characters?
McQ has a very scary process for actors who have never done this before.Things I got used to after making the program [he has appeared in several series, including “Revenge”] In recent years, two takes are required. Maybe it’s because I have 12 pages of work to do today. You have to make some choices and move on. But with McQ, something comes out based on what you’ve packed and he starts adjusting it. He allows you to go in certain directions. Then go back and reshoot if necessary.
So it turns out that what he was after was this sort of brotherly thing going on between two people. Kittredge is clearly trying to keep Ethan and doesn’t want him to have all the marbles, but he has a deep respect for him as well. And McQ was allowing those flavors to show up in a number of takes so he could polish the scene and distill those flavors when he walked into the editing room.
What do you think is so delicious about confronting Tom?
When I’m working with Tom, I’m focused and can disappear. Just open the faucet and see what comes out. Kittredge and Ethan approach the issue from distinctly different sides. Kittredge, like Ethan, believes he is also working for shareholders. But Kittredge’s personal investment in success runs deeper than Ethan’s.Thoughts on Ethan’s success all Kittredge’s idea of success we Better.
You seem to like his lines very much.
Oh, I see? why not? it’s a luscious one. I started with classical theater, but I can seldom say what Kittredge does with genre films. Some things are beautifully written. And it turns out that Henry Czerny has a somewhat peculiar rhythm coming out.
Throughout your career, you’ve played your fair share of expo-serving characters. How do you make that line attractive?
By finding the flavor of the absolute element in the intention. what am i trying to tell you? What are the risks if you don’t tell them? And how do you communicate it as quickly, deeply, and clearly as possible? And that creates rhythm.
A perfect example of this is the first “Mission: Impossible” centerpiece scene.
As Tom will attest to this, some of these scenes show up a day or two in advance, so there isn’t much time to go over them 200 times and make them part of the system. the way you want. But in that scene, the words didn’t change at all. I don’t know why, but De Palma was very interested in me that day about commas and periods, saying “paraphrasing is not allowed here.”
Are you good at pretending the camera isn’t there when it’s as close as De Palma likes it?
It wasn’t so much then, but it is now. I think that’s why the scene between Ethan and Kittredge is so interesting. There is a close relationship there and we strive to maintain it.
In the new film, your very presence in the scene seemed to make the camera angles more dramatic.
Oh yes.Vanessa [Kirby] And then we shot the train scene and then the scene between Ethan and Kittredge. We reshot it because the characters were added. We went to shoot part of it and they were shooting from De Palma’s angle. Then they looked at each other and figured they had to go back and reshoot the train scene.
TRUE? Did they reshoot the entire train scene at a more slanted angle?
Thematically it worked. Intention created form. It wasn’t an addition, it was “Oh, yeah.” Let’s go back and do it. ’ That’s how they put these things together.
Remember when you were in the first Mission: Impossible?
I didn’t want to do it at first. I was in Brazil, I wasn’t in a good mood, I didn’t speak the language, I hadn’t slept in weeks, and I was filming at night. [on a Brazilian film] – It was a disaster. A representative called me and said, “Brian and Tom want you to do Kittredge.” I said, “I don’t think I can do that.” He said, ‘Henry, you’re doing it. .”
OK. I went to the CIA for a few days and talked to people. I thought: They’re not going to tell me everything, but I want to have some juice there. ” When I went to rehearsals for the first “Mission,” I had the following idea. blah blah blah “ Bryan said, “Good to know, we don’t make documentaries.” But that research helped me ground the character a bit more.
Did you expect the series to continue after the first movie?
Oh, there’s a story I wanted to have lunch with you one last time. [producer] Paula Wagner, because I was the second nominee. We discussed what Kittredge could have done in her first production and what she should have done in her second. Paula Wagner listened to her very politely and even paid for her lunch, but that’s the last I heard from her. I bridged all these notions of what Kittredge should do. It was my elevated idea of what I had to offer Hollywood, having just finished her second film in Hollywood.
It must have just come full circle to be back on this series with a director who actually welcomes every thought of the character.
who would have thought? Be patient and honest. What a truly wonderful thing.
