The New Obstacle Rebecca Ferguson Overcame To Complete Her Mission: Impossible Stunts

Rebecca Ferguson in Fallout

Casual fans might not have been aware of this, but Rebecca Ferguson overcame a real personal fear when it came time to film a stunt from her first Mission: Impossible film, Rogue Nation. While Ferguson was cast as the stealth MI6 agent, Ilsa Faust, she didn't know that acting alongside Tom Cruise meant doing a few of your own stunts. And during a leap from the rooftop of the Vienna Opera House, Ferguson had to confess that she suffered from vertigo, and it forced her to somehow push through. When we sat down with the Greatest Showman actress to discuss the latest round of physical challenges for Mission: Impossible -- Fallout, she brought up a different obstacle that you might not have thought about. Ferguson tells CinemaBlend:

There was nothing when it came to heights, or... I don't have that many fears. But I think for me, it was, once again, the fighting. The time it takes, the effort it takes, to do the scenes that you see for -- what, three minutes? There's a lot of effort that goes into it. But not sort of a challenging moment mentally, for me. It's more watching [Cruise] do his stuff. And I just have to calm down!

The best thing about Ilsa Faust, and by extension Rebecca Ferguson is that she isn't a stand-on-the-sideline character waiting for Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) to save the day. Faust fights alongside the IMF team, and even has a bare-knuckle brawl with a character in Mission: Impossible -- Fallout (which I won't reveal here) that absolutely proves that she put in the time and training to sell her character's physicality. And they don't involve heights, like this Rogue Nation stunt that had Ferguson on edge.

In our conversation during the World Premiere of Mission: Impossible -- Fallout in Paris, Rebecca Ferguson made it clear that she views Ilsa as a contemporary of Ethan, and that their skill set is on par. So it's wildly important that, so long as directors keep bringing the actress back for sequels, the franchise continues to push Ilsa to extremes, and it's nice to hear from Rebecca Ferguson that outside of heights, she doesn't have a whole heck of a lot of fears to overcome as an actress. Bring on the shark tank!

You will be able to see for yourself what Ethan Hunt and Ilsa Faust are up to once Mission: Impossible -- Fallout opens in theaters in July 27!

Sean O'Connell
Managing Editor

Sean O’Connell is a journalist and CinemaBlend’s Managing Editor. Having been with the site since 2011, Sean interviewed myriad directors, actors and producers, and created ReelBlend, which he proudly cohosts with Jake Hamilton and Kevin McCarthy. And he's the author of RELEASE THE SNYDER CUT, the Spider-Man history book WITH GREAT POWER, and an upcoming book about Bruce Willis.