Paula Patton may have the grace, carriage and stunning good looks of pampered royalty, but the Los Angeles-native and USC-film-school graduate is no wallflower. As IMF agent Jane Carter in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, she backed up her feminine wiles with an array of punishing strikes and kicks that spared no gender. Man or women, if you crossed Carter, she’d lay you out like a toddler on ice.
It should come as no surprise then to learn that the athletic Patton, like Cruise, did her own stunts. Competitive by nature, she embraced the physical challenge, but admitted to the Wall Street Journal that she had to work hard on her more assertive side, spending two months training in a variety of martial arts, including the eclectic Brazilian capoeira.
The hard work was more than worth the pain, as the chance to work with Tom Cruise doesn’t present itself to everyone. She said the M:I4 star was generous and helpful and always willing to share the spotlight, and that to date this has been the most overwhelming experience of her life. The TomCruise.com team caught up with her this week on the red carpet of the Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol Premiere in the Big Apple and this is what she had to say about working with special agent Hunt:
Other than the warm welcome from Cruise, Patton said director Brad Bird impressed her as well. Calm and decisive, he always knew what he wanted, and he was especially good at getting the most from his actors. Patton even went as far as to call him a genius.
That’s not bad company for an up-and-coming actress. Patton left an unmistakable mark on M:I4, and she will no doubt make further waves in Hollywood – if the fervor over Mission: Impossible ever dies down.
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
Blamed for the terrorist bombing of the Kremlin, IMF operative Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is disavowed along with the rest of the agency when the President initiates “Ghost Protocol.” Left without any resources or backup, Ethan must find a way to clear his agency’s name and prevent another attack. To complicate matters further, Ethan is forced to embark on this mission with a team of fellow IMF fugitives whose personal motives he does not fully know.
Directed by two-time Academy Award winner Brad Bird, ‘Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol’ stars Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Paula Patton, Michael Nyqvist, Vladimir Mashkov, Josh Holloway, Anil Kapoor and Léa Seydoux. ‘Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol’ is in theaters and IMAX on December 21, 2011.
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