Rebecca Ferguson broke the hearts of Mission: Impossible fans when she exited the Tom Cruise-led franchise in the seventh film. It was a very final exit as the fan-favorite Ilsa Faust meets her end in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning. While Ferguson clarified her stance on why she couldn’t continue as Ilsa, there appear to be more reasons that contributed to her exit.
Ferguson revealed that she needed to yearn for a role if she were to make a commitment. For this reason, she initially turned down Graham Yost’s request to return to a second season of AppleTV+’s Silo. However, when the makers came back to her for suggestions, she was more than happy to suggest changes and accept the role.
Tom Cruise and Rebecca Ferguson Couldn’t Have Agreed On Creative Control In MI Franchise
When Rebecca Ferguson appeared on The Wrap’s Unwrapped podcast, she shared how she was skeptical of committing to a second season of Silo. She shared that she didn’t really yearn for the role and there were a couple of things that she didn’t like about it.
She was not ready to sign a four-season deal and conveyed the same to the producers. However, she revealed that the producers came back to her and accepted all the changes that she suggested to them. Ferguson shared with Unwrapped:
They’re asking for a big dedication here. It’s asking for me to do four seasons of a show. I need to be yearning for this. And there were a couple of things that I wasn’t really loving. So I turned it down and then they came back and they were like, what was it you didn’t like? And I was like, well, this and this and this and this, I’ll give you a list. And then they came back and they had changed it all.
Ferguson’s suggestions made the Silo team recognize her value, promoting her to an executive producer on the series. It goes on to show how much the Dune actress would love to have creative control over her roles. She further clarified that she never “overstep my boundaries” and shared that she only took matters into her own hands when it was concerned with her character.
The White Queen actress’s revelation might’ve also provided some hints as to why things didn’t work out for her in Mission: Impossible. Tom Cruise reportedly has the utmost creative control over projects and he probably has the final say on the actors and their respective characters in the films. According to THR‘s sources, the Top Gun actor has script approval on all his projects.
Cruise’s creative control is justifiable, given that the box office of the films largely depends on him. However, it doesn’t appear to be a setting that Ferguson might want to work for a long period of time.
Rebecca Ferguson Explains Her Mission: Impossible Exit
Rebecca Ferguson shared that her exit from Mission: Impossible after Dead Reckoning was a collaborative decision. She revealed that her contract with the franchise ended after three films. She shared that she was not keen on returning to more films, adding, “My deal was done.” Ferguson shared her love for the character, calling her “the most awesome, fantastic character.”
However, she shared that there wasn’t enough space for her character after the addition of multiple new characters. She added that the films also took a lot of time to make, which meant that she had to sit around waiting for the shoot. She shared:
There’s a moment where you think it needs to be worth it, not just to love the character and to embrace Tom and [McQuarrie] and the story. I want to work, man. I want to work. I don’t want to sit in a trailer and know that there’s maybe coming a scene in credits.
She also mentioned that the films produced scripts on the fly, which didn’t really work for her. It appears that Ilsa is not returning to the MI world permanently. Mission: Impossible films are now available for streaming on Paramount+.
