In Christopher McQuarrie’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt and his Impossible Mission Force (IMF) are enlisted to track down a fearsome new weapon that has the potential to threaten all of humanity. Joining the fray is Guardians of the Galaxy’s Pom Klementieff as Paris, a new foe, while Vanessa Kirby reprises her role as the White Widow. During a sitdown with Collider’s Steve Weintraub, the pair discuss working under the direction of McQuarrie during their lengthy production process.

In 2011, McQuarrie took on the task of adjusting the script for Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol at Cruise’s request. Since then, their collaboration has breathed new life into the Mission franchise, and their unique process on set is just one of the many factors of blockbuster success. During their interview, Klementieff and Kirby share what it’s like to do “40 takes of picking up a key” and why they find this method helpful. Klementieff also talks about what goes into the creation of a Mission character like Paris, the righthand man to Esai Morales’ Gabriel, and Kirby breaks down why Dead Reckoning was such a long shoot.

The seventh Mission: Impossible roster introduces Hayley Atwell, Greg Tarzan Davis, and Shea Whigham to the family and sees the return of Rebecca Ferguson, Henry Czerny, and Simon Pegg. For more on what it takes to bring Ethan Hunt’s deadly missions to the big screen, check out the full interview in the video or transcript below.

COLLIDER: So I really want to start with a sincere, “This movie is awesome.” Fastest two-hour and 30-minute movie I’ve seen in a long time. One of the things I don’t think people might realize is the unique way that Tom and McQ work and how they’ll re-shoot things multiple times, like the train sequence. I guess they kept filming it to just get it better and figure out what they wanted. So as actors, talk a little bit about the way they work and what it’s like for you as actors.

POM KLEMENTIEFF: First of all, I think they also cast the actors and then build the character around the actor’s abilities and around what the actor inspires in them and around ongoing conversations that we have together. Also, doing screen tests to see which hair, which make-up, which outfit is gonna go better with the character and how the person moves and all these things. So it takes a lot of time to create the character, but it gives a lot of freedom to the actor, as well, to do that.

What would you like to add?

VANESSA KIRBY: We did 40 takes of picking up a key, and it was so fun because actually, you realize by take 30, you’re thinking as an actor, yeah, you’re just picking up a key, but I thought, “How many ways can a human being pick up a key?”

KLEMENTIEFF: Yes, but it tells a different story.

KIRBY: And you get to play them all. That’s just one tiny example, but in many moments, you get to play many, many different things because you get the opportunity because there’s time and space, and it’s the process of, “Let’s see what comes out.” Then we have loads of time in the edit putting things together that are unusual and allow for– rather than, you know, we’re so used to having one or two takes sometimes in films when it’s a small budget.

KLEMENTIEFF: Totally. Also, Christopher McQuarrie has such a sense of the frame, and he’s surrounded by such an incredible crew, and the lighting is beautiful and the set. Then we just play around and just really take the time to make everything perfect, so it feels very special to get the opportunity to do that.

Image via Paramount Pictures

When Chris and Eric [Jendresen] were writing the screenplay five years ago, they could not have known how much AI was going to be what everyone is talking about right now. Talk a little bit about that aspect because it does seem a little bit like they’re Nostradamus. They nailed it in terms of coming out at the right time.

KIRBY: Well, we were saying it must have been somewhere in the collective unconscious that there’s a feeling of this idea of how we interact with technology and what it means and how much it is utterly now part of the system in our lives, I suppose. And so it seems unbelievably timely, but also must be what humanity is feeling right now and were a few years ago.

KLEMENTIEFF: But I think he was saying that he thought about it back in 2019, right? It’s crazy to think about that.

Also, something else people may not realize about this movie is you’ve been filming for, like, 20 years. It’s like the longest shoot ever. Talk a little about that aspect because, obviously, when you signed on, you couldn’t have known you were going to be filming this forever.

KLEMENTIEFF: I mean, it was crazy. I was never able to go back home for longer than a year, so that was a little bit insane. But I was so focused on the training and on the role and on working with Tom and McQ. I learned so much.

I’m sure. What was it like for you?

KIRBY: We started– I finished this movie, Pieces of a Woman, at the beginning of January 2020. The others had started training in 2019, [but] I couldn’t because I was off doing that movie. Landed back, everyone flew to Venice, we were just about to shoot, and then COVID happened literally the day before shooting. So then it was suspended, obviously. We had no idea if it was going to go back, and then unbelievably, it did in 2020. So that’s three years, really, up to now.

KLEMENTIEFF: Yeah, and then we went to Norway in September, I think. September 2020.

Image via Paramount Pictures

Before I run out of time, I definitely want to ask an individual question of each of you. [To Klementieff] The car chase sequence in Rome is incredible; talk a little bit about filming that sequence and what it was like for you. [To Kirby] And also, the train sequence for you, without getting into any spoilers, is a great sequence for your character, so what was it like reading that on the page or reshooting it 17 times to get what we see on the screen?

KLEMENTIEFF: It was very challenging to shoot these scenes, but what is beautiful is that we shoot in real locations, so we get to go to these beautiful cities and with historical monuments, you know. So yeah, that was insane. But also on the train, I remember having to do a fight scene in such a tight place, so you have to kick super high but super sharp, and you have to be very precise with everything. And you, the train, too, it’s a big moment for your character as well.

KIRBY: Well, I think the train, because it was an interior and it was in a studio, we could come back to it so many times, which is also amazing because I think that was one of the very first scenes, we shot dialogue scenes. And obviously, at that point, everything’s still going with the flow, and everything’s changing so much, so when the idea of the entity and the key was being formed on exactly what it did, I think we shot many times, as I’m sure you’ve been told. So it was a case of, “Oh, I can’t believe we’re back on this train again.” Then I had to come back sometimes without Henry [Czerny] because he wasn’t in the country, and him without me, but it’s Mission, so you just get to play with many different things, and you get to go, “Oh, actually, I think I can do that better, but just in six months time!”

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is in theaters and IMAX tomorrow. Check out Collider’s interview with Tom Cruise from the red carpet in Rome below.