‘Great treat’: Henry Czerny on returning to the Mission: Impossible franchise after 25 years

When Henry Czerny got the call asking him to reprise an iconic role from 1996 in the latest Mission: Impossible film, he was in the middle of shredding tax documents.

“I thought my rep was joking,” the Canadian actor told CTV’s Your Morning on Wednesday. “Speaking of CIA and IMF and all that, I was getting rid of ten years of tax documents. Just doing the thing, doing my day to day, and I got a call that Chris McQuarrie wants to talk to me about bringing Kittridge back. And I go ‘yeah, really.’”

Today, the Mission: Impossible movie franchise spans seven films, with an eighth in progress, but Czerny was there when it all started more than 25 years ago.

In the original Mission: Impossible film, Czerny played Kittridge, an Impossible Missions Force (IMF) director who works with Tom Cruise’s central character, Ethan Hunt as Hunt tracks down a mole in the force.

Now, Kittridge is back on the big screen in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, dodging explosions and navigating action sequences all over again — just with a few extra grey hairs this time.

Czerny said he was on board as soon as director McQuarrie told him the plan for the character’s return.

“We talked next day and he had a great yarn, great idea about what he wanted to do to bring the character back,” he said.

“It’s a great treat to be able to do that, to play someone while you’re younger, relatively less equipped, clearly less experienced, and to go through life and have all that juicy life come through in the character that you get to play 25 years later with the same name but has gone through quite a bit, so great.”

Kittridge was a big part of the first film, but hasn’t appeared in the sequels until now. So what has the character of Eugene Kittridge been doing for the last few decades?

According to Czerny, Kittridge has been busy working his way through different intelligence organizations.

“The FBI, CIA, what have you, Secret Service, he went through and worked at the higher level of all of these agencies… (learning) what are the hurdles, the pitfalls and how do you make it work with the least amount of collateral damage, and we have the Kittridge we have today in Mission: Impossible seven.”

Apart from Kittridge’s return, there’s another nod to the original Mission: Impossible film: trains.

The 1996 film featured an extended final sequence on a moving train, and the new film returns to this fertile ground for another high-speed action set piece.

Czerny said filming another dramatic train sequence was an “absolute treat.”

“Working with Tom, first of all, working with him again, very focused, he allows people to be so present, and so giving and so allowing,” he said. “Chris McQuarrie is a director that wants all you have to offer, just bring it and we’ll film it and we’ll take care of it.”

He noted that he got to work with a Vanessa both times he has been in the franchise — Vanessa Redgrave in 1996 and Vanessa Kirby in the 2023 film.

“Both of whom are exceptional actors and wonderful human beings,” he said.

Of course, there was one more important question to address while on the press tour.

Does Czerny agree with Cruise’s now famous comments about Toronto traffic?

Cruise asked, “What’s up with the traffic in Toronto?” in a conversation with Etalk last week, sparking amusement from many residents who have dealt with the congestion before.

Czerny was born in Toronto — and he agrees “it’s crazy.”

He reflected on how he used to be able to drive from High Park to the downtown area in around 15 minutes back in the late ’60s.

“I kept trying to do that over the years,” he said. “And slowly, but surely, I was getting closer and closer to having an altercation with another car, so I decided at one point to put my car away because I was frustrated at trying to get downtown in 15 minutes when that was never going to happen again.”

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One came out in theatres on July 10. The second part is set to drop in 2024.