Mission: Impossible star explains 27-year absence before Dead Reckoning return – ‘I burned that bridge’

Henry Czerny played Eugene Kittridge in the original ‘Mission: Impossible’

Mission: Impossible star Henry Czerny has shed some light on his nearly three-decade long absence from the franchise.

The Canadian actor, 64, played IMF boss Eugene Kittridge in the original Mission: Impossible film in 1996, but did not appear again until Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, which was released in cinemas this week.

Speaking to Uproxx, Czerny, who is also known for his role in the spy thriller Clear and Present Danger, revealed that he had once been involved in a dispute over his character.

Ahead of filming Mission: Impossible, he took it upon himself to research the role, spending a day and a half with people at the CIA.

“Because they want people to know what they do as well, within reason, of course,” Czerny said. “So, I did all kinds of homework there. And then I had the script with me, and I didn’t try to show them the script, but I knew the questions that I wanted to ask them about it.

“And so I went to the UK with all these answers – all these suggestions about what should be done perhaps with this script. And, of course, that was not met in the way I expected it to be met. It was, ‘Thank you very much, but please keep that to yourself. Great backstory for you. I love that you did that for you.’ Very Mission: Impossible.”

The actor explained that he was “a bit s***-grinned” over their response because he had “gone through the effort”.

He continued: “So, after Mission: Impossible, the first month, I had a lunch with Paula Wagner, who was, at that time, Tom [Cruise]’s producing partner. And I let her know all the things they didn’t do with Kittridge, and what they should be doing with Kittridge in the future, if they had options.

Henry Czerny as Kittridge in ‘Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One’ (Paramount)

“And she was very polite, very nice, paid for the lunch. And that’s the last I saw of Mission: Impossible. I burned that bridge.”

Czerny added that they may have been planning to write out his character anyway. “But I certainly didn’t do myself any favours as a young actor telling Paula Wagner what she missed in this supporting character,” he said.

The actor also claims that Christopher McQuarrie, Dead Reckoning’s director, had wanted to bring back Kittridge in an earlier instalment, “but it just wasn’t right apparently, or whatever”.

He claimed that McQuarrie was “more open” to his own input on the character.

“Absolutely,” he said. “He’s more open to what the actor wants to bring, given the genre, given the tone of the scene, given the trajectory of the story. Yes. All within that, thank you very much. But bring it and we’ll see. We’ll see.”

Dead Reckoning is out in cinemas now.