Mission: Impossible III (2006) is the third installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise. Directed by Christopher McQuarrie, it stars the beloved actor Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt. Just like in other films, Cruise has performed stunts on his own in this film, too.
During the movie’s filming, Cruise was 44 at that time, and through his experience in previous movies, he has almost become a master at performing some of the deadliest stunts in the film.
But obviously, it would be easy for others to perform those stunts by themselves, just like him. The actor himself admitted that his young co-star Keri Russell, 30 (that time), who played the character of Lindsey Elisabeth Farris (a supporting protagonist), had a stunt that wasn’t at all safe for her.
Tom Cruise Acknowledges Risky Mission: Impossible Stunt with Young Co-star Keri Russell
In an interview with David Letterman on his YouTube channel, Letterman, the host asked Tom Cruise: “You’re going off a building onto a truck? And to me, it looks like well, jeez, it looks like you actually went off a building onto a truck.” Cruise admitted:
“We did. We did. That was the first time she’s done anything like that. She did great. We actually went off a building down onto the truck. And beforehand, I said, listen, there’s a chance with the explosion if your hair catches on fire. If you catch on fire, please don’t let go. I’ll put you out. And if you look at the shot, I was the one that caught on fire. The explosion happened, and I’m going like this [shaking his head] and burning embers are flying off my hair. And I look at her and she’s going, oh, my gosh. I said, well, better me than Keri.”
Here, the Hollywood star described a dangerous stunt he performed with Keri Rusell. The stunt involved jumping off a building onto a truck during a movie or show production.
He also told how his hair caught fire during an explosion. But eventually, he was relieved that it happened to him and not to his young co-star. When asked if these kinds of stunts are safe for young actors, his answer was strictly a “no.”
Tom Cruise Acknowledges Risks in Stunt Work with Young Actors
During the same interview (via Letterman), when Dave asked Cruise,
“Is that safe for a young actress or actor? Anybody to be lowered off a thing onto struck? Honestly?
The Top Gun: Maverick star gushed: “No [with a laugh].”
This shows that the star has inherent risks in performing such stunts. And he suggests that it may not be entirely safe for young actors, even though they continue to do so in films.
