Henry Czerny made quite an impression as IMF chief Eugene Kittridge in his second movie in 1996’s Mission: Impossible. Directed by Brian DePalma, the movie went on to gross $457.7 million and spawn a series lasting well over two decades. Czerny’s Kittridge, however, never made an appearance until this summer’s Dead Reckoning Part One helmed by Christopher McQuarrie. In a wide-ranging interview with Uproxx, Czerny got candid about why he believes he was never invited to revisit the role, while also comparing the filming styles of DePalma and McQuarrie.
Czerny admitted that the reason he was never asked to reprise his role may have had to do with him stepping overboard, proposing a host of suggestions on how the producers and the studio could better utilize his character in the subsequent installments. In the interview snippet below, Czerny remembers having gone through a lot of research understanding the inner workings of the CIA, only for that to not really lead to anything. He recalls having a lunch with studio head Paula Wagner about his character’s options and never heard from the studio again.
I did all kinds of homework there. And then I had the script with me, and I didn’t try to show them the script, but I knew the questions that I wanted to ask them about it. And so I went to the UK with all these answers – all these suggestions about what should be done perhaps with this script. And, of course, that was not met in the way I expected it to be met. It was, “Thank you very much, but please keep that to yourself. Great backstory for you. I love that you did that for you.” Very Mission: Impossible.
And so I was a bit chagrined about that because I’d gone through the effort. “Okay. Fine.” So, after Mission: Impossible, the first month, I had a lunch with Paula Wagner, who was, at that time, Tom’s producing partner. And I let her know all the things they didn’t do with Kittridge, and what they should be doing with Kittridge in the future, if they had options. And she was very polite, very nice, paid for the lunch. And that’s the last I saw of Mission: Impossible. I burned that bridge.
Ultimately, it was McQuarrie who brought him back for the role in a pretty grand way, his voice becoming the first trailer’s narrative anchor. Naturally then, Czerny was asked about the differences between DePalma’s and McQuarrie’s working and filming styles. And in his typical candor, Czerny had a lot to add about the differing ways in which both approach directing a scene.
They do have extremely different styles. McQuarrie is right there on set. He will encourage. If he has three days to shoot a scene, he will. And not because he’s worried about getting it right, because when he gets in the editing room, he wants as much of what the actor wants to offer in the editing room. He’s brilliant with a camera, clearly. His editor, Eddie Hamilton, who’s been working on it, this is a team that they’re symbiotic practically. But Brian was… I rarely saw Brian. I mean, I wasn’t in it a lot, but Brian was very camera oriented. And wisely so, because his angles, they’re iconic. But McQ does both. But, I was going to say hands-on, but he’s not hands-on, he’s actually quite hands-off.
Check out the whole interview in the source link below. It’s a fun read that sees Czerny open up quite a bit, before ending with gratitude for getting the opportunity to be the voice of a heavily-promoted trailer.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is in theaters now, and is doing rather well at the box office too.
