Whenever a new actor signs on to a Mission: Impossible movie, you know that at some point they’ll take a page out of the Tom Cruise manual and try to pull some stunts themselves. This confirmation comes from franchise newcomers Greg Tarzan Davis and Shea Whigham, who kicked off their participation in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One with a daring chase scene in Rome, Italy.
In an interview with Collider during the movie’s premiere, Whigham talked to our Editor-in-Chief Steve Weintraub about how he just took the wheel and started driving through the Roman streets while Davis was astonished and texted his mom in panic so she’d know who to blame if things went south. When Davis joined the conversation he confirmed he was “terrified.” He broke down the exact moment when he realized there was no stunt driver coming to take the wheel on the scene, which you can watch above or read the description below:
“We come to set, right? I knew we had to, you know, drift, follow behind Tom [Cruise] and stuff like that. And we’re doing the seated positions where we have our dialogue, and all of a sudden they put cameras on the hood, and they’re like, ‘Alright, we’re about to start driving.’ So I’m just on my phone expecting a stunt guy to come in, and then he starts the car, and I’m like, ‘What…? I’m like, “What is going on?’ And he’s like, ‘I’m driving, baby!’ And he’s driving, almost killing me, I text my mom, I’m like, ‘Mama, listen, if something happens, blame Shea!’”
Davis had no problem admitting he was “frightened as a child,” and added that he was also “very, very impressed” by what his co-star Whigham did on camera. In addition, Whigham revealed that there wasn’t a ton of preparation for the car stunts, but what helped him prepare was the fact that he is “a good passionate driver.” And, even though he got to do his own stunt driving, there was a stunt performer in place all the time to teach him “some unbelievable stunt stuff.”
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Whigham also told Collider that one reason that Cruise and Mission: Impossible director and screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie are so ahead in terms of stunts because they are both producers of the franchise, so they know and prepare the craziest stunts for “years ahead of time,” before even there is a cast in place. At the same time, the actor commends the duo for being open to suggestions and letting the cast members do their own thing: “That allows, once we get in there, someone like [Jasper] Briggs, it’s written on the page that he’s just going to go track down Ethan Hunt and bring him in, it becomes more than that. If I bring something to it, they love that, they allow that to happen.”
Last but not least, Whigham talked about how the production of the Mission: Impossible film series is able to shoot in such gorgeous and busy locations like the Rome streets and the Dubai airport which was used as a Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One location before it even officially opened. Whigham also spoke about his gratitude for getting to film in these locations, saying: “This is one of my favorite places on the planet, the Spanish Steps, because of [John] Keats and [Percy Bysshe] Shelley. Those are two of my favorite poets, so this has a real history for me.” Regarding how they’re able to film in such places, the actor explained that there’s one name that’s irresistible across the world:
“I mean, again, that comes back to Cruise. If he makes the call to a prince, it happens. If he makes the call to a mayor of a beautiful city like Rome, I think they’re more amenable to letting us scream through the streets in a Fiat.”
We’ll still have to wait a couple of weeks until we’re finally able to see how Whigham’s stunts on the wheel turned out, but for now, we can rest easy with the early reactions that suggest that Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is worth the wait. The movie premieres in theaters on July 12.
For more on the film, here’s our conversation with Tom Cruise.
