Hayley Atwell's Mission: Impossible 7 Role Had Been In The Works For Ten Years

Thanks to a promise made long ago by "Mission: Impossible" franchise director Christopher McQuarrie, a role has finally materialized for Hayley Atwell with the seventh film in the series, "Dead Reckoning Part One."

For many, Atwell is still best remembered for playing British Agent Peggy Carter in "Captain America: The First Avenger," and she reprised the character in five more Marvel Cinematic Universe films over the next 11 years. Oddly enough, though, it wasn't the actor's high-profile work in the MCU that got Atwell on McQuarrie's radar, but a role in a stage play in London in 2013. Six years after that, the director's latest "Mission: Impossible" collaboration with Tom Cruise began to come together.

"Chris McQuarrie came to see me in a play, 'The Pride,' in Trafalgar Studios, 10 years ago, directed by Jamie Lloyd," Atwell recalled for Deadline. "He met me afterward and said, 'I want what you do on stage on a screen. I don't know what that character is or what the movie will be.' Cut to then six years later, he calls me and says. 'I'd like to talk to you about the new leading lady role opposite Tom.'"

Atwell went on to clarify that even when she went in for a screentest, there was still no actual part for her and that her coming on board would mean that she would "collaborate and create the character as they went along."

In "Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One," Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his Impossible Mission Force team are tasked with finding two halves of a key that, when interlocked, become the only means of controlling The Entity — a dangerous artificial intelligence system that has become self-aware. Hayley Atwell stars as Grace, an enigmatic master thief who finds herself in the middle of a race between Ethan and the villainous Gabriel (Esai Morales) to find both pieces of the key.

Once Christopher McQuarrie hired Atwell to star in "Dead Reckoning Part One," the actor found out that her job wasn't so much about the character initially, but the work sensibilities shared with Cruise and others on the production.

"There wasn't a character that I had to fit into, there was just this brief of going, 'We want to find the actress who loves this work ethic, who loves the process of it, who loves to collaborate and throw herself into every opportunity with all of these resources of working with these experts, as is possible,'" Atwell told Collider. "'And from that, a character is going to emerge.'"

"Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One" requires a lot of energy from Hayley Atwell. Not only does the actor help shape Grace through dialogue with Ethan, she participates in the movie's most action-packed moments. In fact, Atwell put Cruise's life in her hands with one dangerous stunt when the duo — handcuffed to each other — have to swap places in the cramped front seat of a moving vehicle during the film's harrowing car chase scene in Rome.

As such, all of Atwell's actions helped the actor contribute to her character as the film came together. "It was a sense that you can sort of, on a daily basis, write yourself into the story, or if you become back footed, or a bit fearful, or a bit kind of like, 'Eh,' or you take your eye off the mark, you could also backtrack out of the movie," Atwell told Collider. "That's how collaborative it felt."

Effectively, Atwell told Collider, she began the production with the daunting thought of, "We don't know who this character is," but was thrilled with the opportunity to discover the person who would eventually become Grace during filming. 

"She didn't have a name for a long time, [but I thought] 'I will try lots of different things, and we're gonna see what lands, and we're gonna see what the film wants. I'm gonna see what the camera wants and, ultimately, what the audience wants,'" Atwell explained to the publication. "So, here you have Grace."

"Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One" is playing in theaters.