Shea Whigham gave up a higher-paying job just to do one scene with Tom Cruise in ‘Mission: Impossible 8.’
While discussing his new movie ‘Lake Gorge’ with THR, Whigham talked about ‘Mission: Impossible 8,’ which started filming in March 2022 and faced delays due to the SAG-AFTRA strike. During ‘Dead Reckoning,’ he asked director/co-writer Christopher McQuarrie to create a specific scene for him in the sequel:
“I said to Christopher McQuarrie on [‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning’]: ‘I don2t want a bigger trailer. I don’t want more money. I don’t want better catering. I just want one scene between Tom and I, where you, McQ, write it like ‘The Usual Suspects,’ and we get a chance to get in there.’ And he delivered.”
In ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning,’ Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt is chased by Jasper Briggs (Shea Whigham) and Degas (Greg Tarzan Davis). Both characters will return in ‘Mission: Impossible 8,’ set for 2025.
What Did Cruise Tell Shea After Filming The Scene?
We’ll have to wait until ‘Mission: Impossible 8’ is released to see the scene between Whigham and Cruise. McQuarrie kindly fulfilled Whigham’s request to shoot a scene in the style of ‘The Usual Suspects.’ This scene was filmed towards the end of Whigham’s time on set, but he continued to interact with Cruise afterward.
After Shea and Cruise filmed the scene, they had dinner together. Cruise mentioned he still had a lot of work left to do on ‘Mission: Impossible 8’:
“So we went out to dinner when I was done, and then Tom said, ‘Do you realize that we come out one year from today? And it’s going to be a sprint to finish the f*cking thing.’ … And I was like, ‘What!?’ Because we’re gone. The rest of the cast is all scattered, and he went, ‘Yeah, it’s going to be a sprint. I go all summer.'”
‘Mission: Impossible 8’ comes out on May 23, 2025. All previous ‘Mission: Impossible’ movies can be streamed on Paramount+. You can also watch Whigham in ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ on Netflix.
