Breaking Baz: Industry Finally Paying Attention To Hayley Atwell With Breakout Role In ‘Mission: Impossible’; She Shouts Out Support For Actors Strike

deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: Hayley Atwell predicted that she’d be on strike now. Late Wednesday night, we chatted about her captivating performance opposite Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, and of the globe-trotting promotional tour to tubthump the movie — is there a soul on this planet that isn’t aware of this film?! — that kicked off on the Spanish Steps in Rome four weeks ago, followed by a Cook’s tour of London, Abu Dhabi, Seoul, Sydney and New York.

Tokyo had been scheduled as the final stop, but the mission to Japan was junked once the actors strike was ratified Thursday. “I’m in full support of it,’ Atwell declared of the SAG-AFTRA dispute. ”Making sure that people are properly compensated for their time and their talent and their skill; that’s really important.” One major concern of the striking thespians is the emergence of AI, and to what extent the studios plan to use it at the expense of walking-talking human actors with real blood in their veins.

Atwell noted that Mission: Impossible director and writer Christopher McQuarrie decided four years ago that the film’s villain would be AI. “I feel like McQ’s always on the button when it comes to things that are just about to get into the zeitgeist,” she said. “And so it makes for the perfect kind of high-stakes situation because, of course, AI, like any sort of mode of power, it’s about what you do with it.” The thing in and of itself, she said, “begins as a neutral thing.” “And then it’s up to human beings how they wield it,” she remarked.

The use of AI in a movie or television storyline can make for “such a thrilling obstacle and drama,” but actors have every “right” to strike over their concern that AI could be used to replace them.