Four years after her time on the TV series Felicity came to an end, Keri Russell made her blockbuster movie debut in Mission: Impossible III, where she played Lindsey Farris. Although her time in this installment of the Mission: Impossible film series was relatively short, Russell at least got to shine alongside franchise lead Tom Cruise in what she described in a recent interview as an “epic gun battle scene.” The actress recalled what it was like participating in this action sequence, and that included sharing the suggestion Cruise gave on what to do if her hair caught on fire.
Russell sat down with Variety to play a game of guessing lines from some of her most well-known projects, with this happening just weeks before she’s seen reprising Kate Wyler in The Diplomat Season 2. While she couldn’t remember that “I’m out! How many rounds you got?” came from Mission: Impossible III, she had no trouble remembering the experience of shooting the gun scene from the 2006 action movie. She started off by saying:
Epic gun battle scene, epic. Oh my God. First of all, Tom Cruise does most his own stunts.So because they’re seeing his face, I got to do it too. Like, jump out of a building that’s about to explode, landing on top of a van as it pulls away. And he goes, ‘Listen, if we’re jumping down and your hair catches on fire, just shake it out.’ I was like, ‘Ok, really?’ P.S., I have a lot more hair than he does.
It’s the thought of Tom Cruise looking out for Keri Russell that counts, but yeah, it would have been a lot harder for her to shake the flames off her long hair compared to if he had to deal with them on his much shorter hairstyle. But it wasn’t just advice that Cruise had to offer shooting while shooting Mission: Impossible III with Russell. There’s a moment in the sequence when Ethan Hunt tosses Lindsey Farris a gun, and Cruise pushed for a take where Russell would actually catch the firearm rather than have it be handled through CGI. The actress explained:
I think it was around this line. Tom is supposed to look at me, and then, in slow motion… chuck me a gun and then I catch it, and then go [makes gun firing noises], like some badass move. J.J. said, ‘No, so what you’re gonna do is he’s gonna pretend to throw and then we’ll superimpose something CGI, so just make your hand like that.’ And Tom goes, ‘No, no, no, she can do it.’ And I was like, ‘Tom, I can’t.’ So he’s like, ‘We’re gonna do one, we’re gonna do one. See if she can do it.’ Did it. [Makes swooshing noise] It was so cool.
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Mission: Impossible III was Keri Russell’s second collaboration with director J.J. Abrams, who co-created Felicity with Matt Reeves, and then they re-teamed for 2019’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Although not as commercially successful as the first two Mission: Impossible movies, and still ranking as the lowest-grossing entry in the film series, III earned generally positive reviews. Sadly, Lindsey Farris didn’t go on to become one of Ethan Hunt’s recurring allies, as she was killed shortly after her introduction by an explosive pellet implanted in her head.
While we wait for more updates on 2025’s Mission: Impossible 8, remember that all of the franchise’s released movies can be streamed with a Paramount+ subscription. For the Keri Russell fans reading, The Diplomat Season 2 premieres to Netflix subscription holders on October 31, and the show has already been greenlit for Season 3.