Simon Pegg has been inspired by Tom Cruise to do more stunts.
The 50-year-old actor plays Benji Dunn in the ‘Mission: Impossible’ franchise opposite Tom, 57, as Ethan Hunt and Simon admitted that seeing Tom perform his own stunts has made him want to carry out some action sequences of his own.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Simon said: "Certainly with ‘Mission’… When we did ‘Ghost Protocol’ and Tom did that amazing stunt off the Burj Khalifa, there was this palpable thrill when we watched it with an audience. It was because the audience knew that it was Tom actually doing it. In this age now where we can literally see actors do anything because of CG and green screens that enable us to create these super fanciful realities, when you get back to someone actually doing something, there’s a tension that’s kind of evaporated a little bit in the wake of all this artificiality.
"And I think a little lightbulb went off in Tom’s head, and he just thought, ‘This is what we should do. We should make sure we deliver this authentic thrill’. And it makes us all want to do it. We’re all like, ‘Absolutely’. If there’s something I can do, safely, and the insurance people are okay with it, I’ll do it. So far, that’s pretty much been everything. Fortunately, Benji tends to be tapping a computer and telling Ethan where to go, but if the chance arises, I’m there."
And Simon also revealed he is thrilled that director Christopher McQuarrie decided to give all of the main characters in the movie franchise – including Benji – their own individual arcs.
He explained: "McQ has always been at pains to provide that for these characters. He wrote on ‘Ghost Protocol’ as well, so he’s been involved in three of the Mission: Impossible movies that I’ve done. For all the massive stunts, set pieces and action, what is most important to him is underpinning all of that with characters you genuinely care about so those moments of peril genuinely resonate. You can watch a film where there’s the most incredible action, but if you don’t care about the people that it’s happening to, then it’s completely hollow.
"The other night, McQ was saying that each set piece was about 20 minutes of the movie. So, in between those moments, he gets to spin his character arcs and explore the nuances of each character."