Pom Klementieff says her performance in Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One was inspired by Bruce Lee, Quentin Tarantino, Jackie Chan, and more.
Speaking with Variety, Klementieff was asked what movies she watched in preparation for her action scenes in the latest Mission: Impossible sequel, which opened theatrically in the United States on July 12, 2023.
“Quentin Tarantino is one of my favorite directors, so of course I always watch Kill Bill,” Klementieff answered. “I watched movies with Bruce Lee, with Jackie Chan and some French movies as well, because it was not just about the fight and the physicality — it was also the way the character walks. I was inspired by movies with Jean-Paul Belmondo to find a cockiness to the character. And movies with Clint Eastwood, Takeshi Kitano, all these beautiful characters that barely speak but convey so many emotions as well.”
Klementieff’s Mission: Impossible 7 Role, Explained
In Mission: Impossible 7, Klementieff (who is also known for her performance as Mantis in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies) plays an assassin named Paris. Working for a terrorist known as Gabriel (Esai Morales), Paris rarely speaks in the film; rather, her presence is instead defined by her physicality and stunt work when posing as a major threat to Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his crew.
Klementieff said she trained for years in order to pull off some of the stunts in Mission: Impossible 7. “We trained very hard with [stunt coordinator] Wade Eastwood. But I had been training for years with a martial artist who taught me how to punch, how to kick, so I had been doing kickboxing, boxing, taekwondo,” she explained. “It was my dream to be part of Mission: Impossible. When I was training years ago, sometimes in my schedule, instead of writing ‘martial arts’ or ‘stunt training,’ I would write Mission: Impossible, because I wanted to manifest it.”
Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One is in theaters now.
