Pom Klementieff is back, bringing her signature intensity and a surprising depth to the character of Paris in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. Having manifested this role through years of martial arts training, which she affectionately dubbed “Mission: Impossible training,” Klementieff reveals the surreal joy of returning to one of the biggest franchises in cinematic history as the latest film hits theaters this Friday.
“It was wonderful to get to explore the character more and to get to work with these incredible people – the cast, the crew, the director, everyone,” Klementieff shared in a virtual interview as she returned for the second time after debuting in Dead Reckoning as IMF nemesis Paris. This time around, she joins forces with Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his team to stop the Entity from destroying the world.
The stakes in this film are higher than ever with Cruise climbing to new heights – literally and figuratively – in what is said to be the final entry in the franchise. The jaw-dropping stunts done with practical effects and without CGI makes this an edge-of-the-seat thriller.
While Paris remains a formidable force, audiences will discover new layers to her character in this entry. Klementieff expressed her enthusiasm for Paris’s evolving storyline: “It was amazing because she has incredible fight scenes, and she’s a badass, but at the same time, it’s not just that. There’s so many layers to the character and then she gets to interact with the other characters that we love in the franchise and to get to care about others instead of just killing everyone.”
When asked how much of herself she sees in Paris, Klementieff quipped with a laugh, revealing that she too shares that intensity like her on-screen character – just that she doesn’t kill people, she added playfully. This hints at the balance between the character’s formidable nature and the actor’s own grounded personality.
Before her turn as the enigmatic assassin Paris, the French actress, gained widespread recognition for her role as Mantis in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, starring in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019), where she brought the empathic, antenna-clad alien to life.
A fascinating aspect of the Mission: Impossible creative process is how director Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise tailor characters around the actors they cast. Klementieff elaborates on how this applied to Paris: “I think what was important was to find a fight style that worked with the character and that also worked with my abilities.”
Years of training in high kicks and other martial arts techniques were put to good use. “I do a few high kicks in the movie and also an axe kick. Oh my god. I was dying to do that,” she said, visibly excited. Training with her sensei, Jessen Noviello, Klementieff perfected the axe kick, a powerful move where the leg comes up and strikes down like an axe. “We shot that one for the first fight that you see in the movie, and that was so satisfying to finally shoot it for the movie.” This dedication to authenticity and the ongoing dialogue with the director and Cruise allowed the character to reveal herself organically.
Klementieff’s passion for learning new skills and taking risks in her roles is evident in her commitment to performing her own stunts. Despite the inherent dangers, she felt secure due to the exceptional stunt team led by Wade Eastwood. “There’s so much fight and so many ways that things could go wrong. But I was surrounded by the best of the best,” she affirmed. The satisfaction of doing all her own fighting is a highlight for Klementieff. “You don’t get to do that in a lot of movies, you know. Usually, they wanna use stunt doubles and some special effects or and it’s not the case in this movie.” Her enjoyment is palpable on screen, even when using “rifles as baseball bats,” as she humorously describes.
Having a front-row seat to Cruise’s unparalleled dedication to cinema and storytelling, Klementieff marveled at his unique approach. “There is no one like him,” she says. “It’s his constant way of pushing himself and his intense curiosity on the world and on everything, on everyone. So he’s just always eager to learn and he just wants to make the best movie for the audience. It’s always about the audience.” Klementieff even visited the set to witness Cruise’s astounding underwater sequences in the film, calling it “a master class of movie making.”
Klementieff, who made her Hollywood debut in Spike Lee’s 2013 film Oldboy and had a recurring role in the HBO series Westworld, wants to continue to do action films, hoping it continues to remain a cornerstone of her career, but with a crucial caveat. “I mean, I wanna keep doing it but with the right people. I’ve been very spoiled, working with Tom and McQ in Mission Impossible.” Her high standards have been set and she’s keen to continue pushing boundaries in the action genre.
The filming locations for Final Reckoning were as spectacular as the stunts. Klementieff fondly recalled the experience of shooting in the Arctic, describing it as “beautiful” and filled with “such fun memories.” She recounted a memorable moment with Cruise: “At some point, Tom was on his snowmobile and I was on the back and he was just showing me around and doing some location scouting and looking at beautiful glaciers and it was really stunning.”
When asked to pick a stunt from the entire Mission: Impossible franchise she would love to perform for the sheer joy of it, Klementieff doesn’t hesitate. “That would be the skydiving sequence in Fallout. That one was amazing.” She even shared that she jumped with Craig O’Brien, the person who filmed the iconic sequence, after being introduced to him by Cruise. Cruise gifted her skydiving lessons after they wrapped the previous film. Her adventurous spirit extends beyond what’s already been done, as she also expressed an interest in wing walking, a daring stunt Cruise performed in the latest film.
With Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, Klementieff not only delivers exhilarating action but also layers Paris with a blend of strength and evolving humanity, rounding out a solid cast in the franchise.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is in theatres and IMAX this Friday.
Film stills courtesy of Paramount Pictures.
Feature image photographed by Marco Bahler.
