Mission Impossible Star Does Her Own Stunts – Hair Catches Fire!

Keri Russell, star of “Mission: Impossible III,” reminisces about filming one of the movie’s most thrilling scenes and the advice given by Tom Cruise during the intense shootout. Directed by J.J. Abrams, this third installment of the popular franchise hit theaters in 2006, featuring Cruise reprising his role as the super-spy Ethan Hunt. Russell played the role of Hunt’s trainee, Lindsey Farris. Right from the start, her skills were put to the test in a lengthy sequence where Hunt rescues her from a heavily guarded industrial complex.

In a recent video interview with Variety, where Russell was asked to recall lines from her films, she discussed the filming of “Mission: Impossible III” and particularly remembered a stunt where she and Cruise had to jump onto a moving van as a building exploded behind them. She shared the advice her co-star, known for performing his own stunts, gave her about what to do if her hair caught fire from the explosion.

“Epic shootout scene. Epic. Oh my God. First of all, Tom Cruise does most of his stunts himself, so since you can see his face, I had to do it too. Like jumping from a building that’s about to blow up, landing on top of a van as it drives away. And he says, ‘Listen, if we jump and your hair catches fire, just shake it off.’ I was like, ‘OK, really?’ P.S.: I have a lot more hair than he does!” she recounted with a laugh.

“She Can Do It”

Russell then recalled the filming of the shootout, a scene where she had to catch a gun thrown by Cruise and then continue firing at their enemies. It was a particularly challenging weapon toss that the film’s director, J.J. Abrams, wanted to achieve using CGI. However, Cruise insisted on doing it for real.

“I think it was about this line, Tom is supposed to look at me and then in slow motion, throw a magazine or a gun, I’m not even sure. And then I catch it and do a badass move. J.J. said, ‘No, so what you’re going to do is he’s going to pretend to throw it and then we’ll overlay something in CGI. So just make your hand like this.’ And Tom says, ‘No, no, no, she can do it.’ And I’m like, ‘Tom, I can’t.’ So he said, ‘We’ll do one take, we’ll do one. We’ll see if she can do it.’ And I did. It was so cool.”

If Tom Cruise thinks you can do something, then maybe it’s true: that’s what happened for Keri Russell. And the outcome was perfect!

Check out her comments (with clips from the scene in question) in the video below:

“Mission Impossible III” is available for streaming on Paramount +.