Why Mission: Impossible's Pom Klementieff is the female Tom Cruise

Why Mission: Impossible's Pom Klementieff is the female Tom Cruise.

Video transcript

- Congratulations on the film.

SIMON PEGG: Thank you.

POM KLEMENTIEFF: Thank you.

- And welcome to Australia. How have we been treating you so far?

- Oh, we love it.

SIMON PEGG: Always splendid.

POM KLEMENTIEFF: We went to Bondi on the beach yesterday. It was beautiful.

SIMON PEGG: Yeah. We had the day off when we arrived because, obviously, it's always a bit of a schlep to get here. Even though we came from Korea, it was still quite a long flight. So they gave us the day, so we made the most of it.

- I saw some fun Insta stories-- you getting drenched by the--

SIMON PEGG: I did. I got wet. I stood in the sea. I thought, I want to stand in this Pacific and feel like I'm on this side of the Earth. And the wave just went straight up the middle of my legs. I looked like I'd soiled myself.

POM KLEMENTIEFF: So I had to record it, of course.

SIMON PEGG: Yeah, and laugh like a maniac.

POM KLEMENTIEFF: And make fun of him.

- Of course, of course. Simon, you just missed out on shooting a "Mission-- Impossible" film in Australia. Do you think it's time that we come back and bring--

SIMON PEGG: Heck, yeah.

POM KLEMENTIEFF: It would be amazing.

SIMON PEGG: That's all we said yesterday when we were walking up the coastal road at Bondi. It was like, we need to make the film here because it would be so much fun.

POM KLEMENTIEFF: It's so much open space, and it's so beautiful.

- Pom, a lot of people know and love you from "Guardians of the Galaxy." Your character is very different to Mantis. Is it more fun to be the villain?

POM KLEMENTIEFF: I mean, I love all the training. I love all the fights. So it was really, really satisfying to get to do that and with such incredible-- such an incredible filmmaker, McQ. And to get to do that with Tom, too, was amazing, a dream come true.

- I saw someone on Instagram called you the female Tom Cruise. I didn't realize how much of a badass you are.

POM KLEMENTIEFF: Oh, that's a really nice compliment. Thank you.

SIMON PEGG: Pom Cruise?

- Yeah.

SIMON PEGG: [LAUGHS]

- I love that. Did the stunts and fight sequences live up to your expectations?

POM KLEMENTIEFF: Oh, yeah, even more. I mean, at some point, I got to run on top of a moving train and jump over carriages in real life. Usually, in movies, you do that on a green screen in a studio, and it's not real. So it was amazing to get to do that.

SIMON PEGG: I could see you doing-- and, you know, you're the one person I think that could sort of helm a spinoff. Because Pom is like Tom. She's a danger person, in real life and on film, you know?

POM KLEMENTIEFF: Oh, thank you. But I'm nice, too. I'm not a psychopath.

SIMON PEGG: No, no, no, no, no. No, she's not nice.

POM KLEMENTIEFF: [LAUGHS]

- Simon, are you just like, every film-- because watching some of the earlier films and then watching this one, the stunts just get more and more insane-- are you just like, how are we doing this?

SIMON PEGG: Always. People always say, oh, how are you going to top this one? I know, in this case, because I've seen what's coming in the next one. And it does.

POM KLEMENTIEFF: Amazing.

SIMON PEGG: But they just know how to push things further. And I think the key is is that every film we do, we learn something. Tom and McQ will learn something about filmmaking. And they're always the first to admit they're students of film as much as anything. So they'll take those skills that they learn on one film, and they'll put it to use in the other. So it can only ever get more adventurous.

- And are we waiting for Benji's time to really shine in a stunt in the next film?

SIMON PEGG: Who knows? Well, if he makes it into number two-- you know, no spoilers-- then who knows what's in store for him? I always have to just be ready. We all train hard.

POM KLEMENTIEFF: There's a lot of running for you in this one.

- Yeah, I do a bit of running--

POM KLEMENTIEFF: Stress running.

SIMON PEGG: --boat driving, stress running. But who knows?

POM KLEMENTIEFF: Sweating.

SIMON PEGG: A lot of sweating.

POM KLEMENTIEFF: [LAUGHS]

SIMON PEGG: We never quite know what's going to happen. So McQ might suddenly say, oh, I've decided that Paris is going to do this or Benji's going to do that. So we just have to be ready.

- I can't imagine the training that goes into a film like this.

SIMON PEGG: It's so fun, though.

- I can imagine. You're the badass. You do it all.

SIMON PEGG: She kicks A.

POM KLEMENTIEFF: Yeah, we train for months and months. And we have such an amazing team with Wade Eastwood, who's the stunt coordinator, who worked on this movie and the previous ones. So you train a lot, and you feel safe. You're really, really trained for any action scene possible.

- You must just be ready to film at all times. You've got the Marvel stuff. You've got this. That's crazy.

SIMON PEGG: It's like being a firefighter. [LAUGHS]

- Absolutely-- ready to go at all times. And what's something from behind the scenes of the film that fans might not expect?

SIMON PEGG: Just the-- I don't know. You see us all fighting each other. But we did get on. And it's--

POM KLEMENTIEFF: We even made a movie in Venice.

SIMON PEGG: We did. Pom and I made a movie in Venice, which you can watch.

POM KLEMENTIEFF: He directed it. We wrote it together. I sing in French. It's funny in English. It's subtitled. We make fun of Chris Hemsworth.

SIMON PEGG: Aussie hero.

POM KLEMENTIEFF: We love Chris Hemsworth, but it was really fun to make fun of him.

SIMON PEGG: It was part of a kind of diss track thing that Pom had to do for her--

POM KLEMENTIEFF: For charity.

SIMON PEGG: --fantasy football league. So we--

POM KLEMENTIEFF: And Tom and you and Rebecca make a cameo at the end of the movie.

SIMON PEGG: We're all in it. It's on Pom's Instagram.

POM KLEMENTIEFF: Yeah, in my pinned Instagram post.

SIMON PEGG: That's what you do when you make a film during COVID and you have to lock down for 10 days. You go off and make a different film.

POM KLEMENTIEFF: Yeah.