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Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
After one legendary moment, actor Rolf Saxon chose to accept another 'Mission'
If you are only going to be in one part of a movie, it's best if it's the most memorable part. For example, a thrilling set-piece that sets the template for an entire franchise. So it was for actor Rolf Saxon, who appeared as a befuddled CIA analyst in the very first "Mission: Impossible" film. The sequence, in which Tom Cruise dangles from the ceiling of a stark white vault room to infiltrate the computer system overseen by Saxon's character, is now the stuff of action-cinema history. From a throwaway punchline in that 1996 film — exiling Saxon's William Donloe to a remote radar station in Alaska — comes one of the most unexpected storylines in the new 'Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.' His part in the new film is substantially larger and provides the film with some of its emotional heft, making Saxon's return as Donloe a triumph. (A rather memorable knife makes a comeback as well.) For Saxon's work in the first film, he was in the same physical space as Cruise but their two characters never interacted and had no dialogue together. So a moment late in the new film when Donloe makes a heartfelt expression to Cruise's Ethan Hunt of what his life has been like all these years in Alaska provided relief for the character of Donloe — and for the actor portraying him too. 'It was something I was hoping for, and then it happened,' says Saxon, 70. 'It's a great scene. Working with one of the biggest movie stars in the world, that's kind of cool too.' Finally sharing a proper scene with Cruise also gave Saxon some insight into the reason Cruise has been one of the world's biggest movie stars for more than 40 years. 'There's no question why he is,' Saxon says. 'The energy that he personally brings into a room, I've never witnessed before. It's focused, it's practiced. I know this sounds like I'm supposed to say this about him, but it's true. This guy's unbelievable. And he does those effing stunts." Saxon is impressed, too, by the real-life mission Cruise is often vocal about. 'His whole raison d'être is to enhance the industry that's given him so much and bring people in, bring them back to theaters. And I just applaud that on my feet.' Having had a steadily successful career between his two "Missions," Saxon lives in the Sierra Foothills of Northern California but was recently on a Zoom call from New York City the day after attending the new film's U.S. premiere there. It was Saxon's second time seeing the movie, having also attended a premiere in London just a few days earlier. Born in Virginia, Saxon studied acting in England, where he would land parts in numerous British TV series as well as assorted film and theater roles. Throughout his career he has also done voice-over work for video games, including the 'Broken Sword' series, and was the narrator for the American edition of the popular children's show 'Teletubbies.' Read more: The 18 summer movies we're most excited about According to Saxon, much of the business of what Donloe does onscreen in the first movie directed by Brian De Palma came from an unexpected interaction on set. 'I was given the script," he recalls, "I read it and I thought, OK, there's not a lot to do here. And then one day I was messing around on set, joking around, there was some downtime. And I got a tap on the shoulder from the first [A.D.], who said that Brian De Palma wanted to have a word with me. And I thought, 'Uh-oh.' 'And I walked over and he had a very stern demeanor. Great guy, but he just always looked angry and he said, 'You're playing around on set.' I said, 'Yes, Mr. De Palma.' He said, 'Could you do that again?' I said, "Sure, of course." What am I going to say to say, no? He said, 'OK, after lunch, we're going to have you messing around onstage. We'll film that.'" All of Donloe's memorable physical mishaps — the vomiting, the double take — were Saxon improvs. The vault sequence has become one of the signature set-pieces of the first film, seemingly lifting from both the silent heist in 'Rififi' and the spacewalk of '2001: A Space Odyssey' and setting a stunts-centric guide for the franchise to come. To perform the scene, Cruise spent hours in a harness suspended from the ceiling. 'I mean, it was a long time,' says Saxon. 'And they'd bring him down sometimes, but he's that guy. He does what needs to be done. I was in the room a number of times with him, while he was filming it, but [our characters] never were supposed to meet.' Saxon recalls that while shooting the first 'Mission' film, he and Cruise shared a makeup room at the studio in England. One day the woman who did Cruise's makeup wasn't there because her son had an accident at his school. As soon as Cruise heard the news, he called his private on-call doctor and sent him to attend to the boy. 'And he hung up the phone, said, 'Shut the door,'" remembers Saxon. "And he said, 'This stays between us. If this comes out, it's somebody in this room. I'm going to find out who it is and that'll be your last day on the film.' He wanted no publicity. He did it for this lady and her son. And the boy was fine, he was mildly concussed. When she came back the next day, there was a massive bouquet of flowers, saying 'Welcome back.' And then nothing was ever said of it again. That's the kind of guy he is. And it took me two years before I would tell that story.' Saxon had never had reason to encounter Cruise in the intervening years, because, as he says, 'I'm an actor but I'm not a star.' The call for the new film first came in January of 2022, and Saxon began shooting on the film in August of that year, finishing in July of 2024. (Saxon's casting was announced via director Christopher McQuarrie's Instagram in March 2023.) This time around, Donloe becomes a vital part of the team and is in the middle of the action at the film's climax. In his years in Alaska he has even married an Inuit woman, Tapeesa (Lucy Tulugarjuk). 'The feeling on this set was one of warmth and inclusivity — welcoming,' says Saxon. 'I was on it for almost three years, but people were on it for over five years. This schedule for the filming was very erratic, and [McQuarrie] kept very calm. McQ and Tom, they worked very much in tandem. I loved coming to work every day. Not that I didn't with Brian's stuff, but this was just a joy, and I was much more a part of it than I was in the first one. I was much more part of the team, the core group that was working.' For "The Final Reckoning," a sequence meant to take place in Alaska, with a team of agents arriving to the remote cabin occupied by Donloe and Tapeesa, was actually shot in Svalbard, an archipelago north of Norway. 'We were staying on a ship,' says Saxon. 'We went to Longyearbyen, which is the furthest most populated area in the world. Then we took a six-hour ride north on the ship, parked on the glacier. And that's where we lived for two weeks. Polar bears, walruses, reindeer and us. It was the most beautiful place I've ever been in my life.' The cave sequence that is part of the movie's action finale is set in South Africa but was shot in the Middleton mines in England's East Midlands. 'This was in many ways a dream job,' says Saxon. 'The people I'm working with, the thing I'm working on and the places I got to go to work. It's just like, what would you really like to do? Here it is.' From his initial conversations with McQuarrie, Saxon knew that his part would be significantly larger than in the first film. But even then it developed over the course of production. McQuarrie informed him that some scenes Saxon initially shot were no longer going to be used and due to rewrites, the actor would now be part of the climactic finale. 'He said, 'We really like what you did, but we've had a story alteration, so we can't use that. So we're going to put you in in other ways,'' says Saxon. 'And that was kind of like, 'Oh, no' and 'Oh, yeah' at the same time. Which is kind of the way this worked the whole way through.' Among the actors in his scenes this time out, Saxon had previously worked with Simon Pegg on the 1999 British sitcom 'Hippies.' He also discovered that he and Hayley Atwell had attended the same drama school in London, though some years apart. Also returning was Henry Czerny, whose character in the initial film sent Donloe to Alaska in the first place. As to whether he had ever imagined returning to the franchise, Saxon holds his arms out wide, saying, 'Just a little dream.' He adds, 'I thought about writing Chris or Tom, 'Dear Tom, here's what I think we could do with Donloe.' Or, 'What about this with Donloe?' And at one point, after listening to a friend, I drafted a letter to him. The next day I woke up and I thought' — he mimes wadding up a piece of paper and tossing it away — 'That's never going to happen.' And then years later, bang, it did.' Saxon said he has never been recognized by anyone for the part of Donloe. (That is likely about to change.) If pressed, his favorite of the 'Mission: Impossible' films has remained the first one. Up to now. 'I suppose closure is one way of putting it,' says Saxon. 'It's been much more fun, this one. The other one, I did my job and I enjoyed doing it. But this one I got to really investigate. It's like remounting a production onstage, or coming back to a project you did 20 years ago, 30 years ago and getting to redo it with what you know now, particularly with the excitement of a larger part. It's fantastic. It's another reason this is such a gift.' Sign up for Indie Focus, a weekly newsletter about movies and what's going on in the wild world of cinema. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
After one legendary moment, actor Rolf Saxon chose to accept another ‘Mission'
If you are only going to be in one part of a movie, it's best if it's the most memorable part. For example, a thrilling set-piece that sets the template for an entire franchise. So it was for actor Rolf Saxon, who appeared as a befuddled CIA analyst in the very first 'Mission: Impossible' film. The sequence, in which Tom Cruise dangles from the ceiling of a stark white vault room to infiltrate the computer system overseen by Saxon's character, is now the stuff of action-cinema history. From a throwaway punchline in that 1996 film — exiling Saxon's William Donloe to a remote radar station in Alaska — comes one of the most unexpected storylines in the new 'Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.' His part in the new film is substantially larger and provides the film with some of its emotional heft, making Saxon's return as Donloe a triumph. (A rather memorable knife makes a comeback as well.) For Saxon's work in the first film, he was in the same physical space as Cruise but their two characters never interacted and had no dialogue together. So a moment late in the new film when Donloe makes a heartfelt expression to Cruise's Ethan Hunt of what his life has been like all these years in Alaska provided relief for the character of Donloe — and for the actor portraying him too. 'It was something I was hoping for, and then it happened,' says Saxon, 70. 'It's a great scene. Working with one of the biggest movie stars in the world, that's kind of cool too.' Finally sharing a proper scene with Cruise also gave Saxon some insight into the reason Cruise has been one of the world's biggest movie stars for more than 40 years. 'There's no question why he is,' Saxon says. 'The energy that he personally brings into a room, I've never witnessed before. It's focused, it's practiced. I know this sounds like I'm supposed to say this about him, but it's true. This guy's unbelievable. And he does those effing stunts.' Saxon is impressed, too, by the real-life mission Cruise is often vocal about. 'His whole raison d'être is to enhance the industry that's given him so much and bring people in, bring them back to theaters. And I just applaud that on my feet.' Having had a steadily successful career between his two 'Missions,' Saxon lives in the Sierra Foothills of Northern California but was recently on a Zoom call from New York City the day after attending the new film's U.S. premiere there. It was Saxon's second time seeing the movie, having also attended a premiere in London just a few days earlier. Born in Virginia, Saxon studied acting in England, where he would land parts in numerous British TV series as well as assorted film and theater roles. Throughout his career he has also done voice-over work for video games, including the 'Broken Sword' series, and was the narrator for the American edition of the popular children's show 'Teletubbies.' According to Saxon, much of the business of what Donloe does onscreen in the first movie directed by Brian De Palma came from an unexpected interaction on set. 'I was given the script,' he recalls, 'I read it and I thought, OK, there's not a lot to do here. And then one day I was messing around on set, joking around, there was some downtime. And I got a tap on the shoulder from the first [A.D.], who said that Brian De Palma wanted to have a word with me. And I thought, 'Uh-oh.' 'And I walked over and he had a very stern demeanor. Great guy, but he just always looked angry and he said, 'You're playing around on set.' I said, 'Yes, Mr. De Palma.' He said, 'Could you do that again?' I said, 'Sure, of course.' What am I going to say to say, no? He said, 'OK, after lunch, we're going to have you messing around onstage. We'll film that.'' All of Donloe's memorable physical mishaps — the vomiting, the double take — were Saxon improvs. The vault sequence has become one of the signature set-pieces of the first film, seemingly lifting from both the silent heist in 'Rififi' and the spacewalk of '2001: A Space Odyssey' and setting a stunts-centric guide for the franchise to come. To perform the scene, Cruise spent hours in a harness suspended from the ceiling. 'I mean, it was a long time,' says Saxon. 'And they'd bring him down sometimes, but he's that guy. He does what needs to be done. I was in the room a number of times with him, while he was filming it, but [our characters] never were supposed to meet.' Saxon recalls that while shooting the first 'Mission' film, he and Cruise shared a makeup room at the studio in England. One day the woman who did Cruise's makeup wasn't there because her son had an accident at his school. As soon as Cruise heard the news, he called his private on-call doctor and sent him to attend to the boy. 'And he hung up the phone, said, 'Shut the door,'' remembers Saxon. 'And he said, 'This stays between us. If this comes out, it's somebody in this room. I'm going to find out who it is and that'll be your last day on the film.' He wanted no publicity. He did it for this lady and her son. And the boy was fine, he was mildly concussed. When she came back the next day, there was a massive bouquet of flowers, saying 'Welcome back.' And then nothing was ever said of it again. That's the kind of guy he is. And it took me two years before I would tell that story.' Saxon had never had reason to encounter Cruise in the intervening years, because, as he says, 'I'm an actor but I'm not a star.' The call for the new film first came in January of 2022, and Saxon began shooting on the film in August of that year, finishing in July of 2024. (Saxon's casting was announced via director Christopher McQuarrie's Instagram in March 2023.) This time around, Donloe becomes a vital part of the team and is in the middle of the action at the film's climax. In his years in Alaska he has even married an Inuit woman, Tapeesa (Lucy Tulugarjuk). 'The feeling on this set was one of warmth and inclusivity — welcoming,' says Saxon. 'I was on it for almost three years, but people were on it for over five years. This schedule for the filming was very erratic, and [McQuarrie] kept very calm. McQ and Tom, they worked very much in tandem. I loved coming to work every day. Not that I didn't with Brian's stuff, but this was just a joy, and I was much more a part of it than I was in the first one. I was much more part of the team, the core group that was working.' For 'The Final Reckoning,' a sequence meant to take place in Alaska, with a team of agents arriving to the remote cabin occupied by Donloe and Tapeesa, was actually shot in Svalbard, an archipelago north of Norway. 'We were staying on a ship,' says Saxon. 'We went to Longyearbyen, which is the furthest most populated area in the world. Then we took a six-hour ride north on the ship, parked on the glacier. And that's where we lived for two weeks. Polar bears, walruses, reindeer and us. It was the most beautiful place I've ever been in my life.' The cave sequence that is part of the movie's action finale is set in South Africa but was shot in the Middleton mines in England's East Midlands. 'This was in many ways a dream job,' says Saxon. 'The people I'm working with, the thing I'm working on and the places I got to go to work. It's just like, what would you really like to do? Here it is.' From his initial conversations with McQuarrie, Saxon knew that his part would be significantly larger than in the first film. But even then it developed over the course of production. McQuarrie informed him that some scenes Saxon initially shot were no longer going to be used and due to rewrites, the actor would now be part of the climactic finale. 'He said, 'We really like what you did, but we've had a story alteration, so we can't use that. So we're going to put you in in other ways,'' says Saxon. 'And that was kind of like, 'Oh, no' and 'Oh, yeah' at the same time. Which is kind of the way this worked the whole way through.' Among the actors in his scenes this time out, Saxon had previously worked with Simon Pegg on the 1999 British sitcom 'Hippies.' He also discovered that he and Hayley Atwell had attended the same drama school in London, though some years apart. Also returning was Henry Czerny, whose character in the initial film sent Donloe to Alaska in the first place. As to whether he had ever imagined returning to the franchise, Saxon holds his arms out wide, saying, 'Just a little dream.' He adds, 'I thought about writing Chris or Tom, 'Dear Tom, here's what I think we could do with Donloe.' Or, 'What about this with Donloe?' And at one point, after listening to a friend, I drafted a letter to him. The next day I woke up and I thought' — he mimes wadding up a piece of paper and tossing it away — 'That's never going to happen.' And then years later, bang, it did.' Saxon said he has never been recognized by anyone for the part of Donloe. (That is likely about to change.) If pressed, his favorite of the 'Mission: Impossible' films has remained the first one. Up to now. 'I suppose closure is one way of putting it,' says Saxon. 'It's been much more fun, this one. The other one, I did my job and I enjoyed doing it. But this one I got to really investigate. It's like remounting a production onstage, or coming back to a project you did 20 years ago, 30 years ago and getting to redo it with what you know now, particularly with the excitement of a larger part. It's fantastic. It's another reason this is such a gift.'
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Full of Hell Announce New EP, Unleash Single 'Knight's Oath': Stream
The post Full of Hell Announce New EP, Unleash Single 'Knight's Oath': Stream appeared first on Consequence. Full of Hell have announced a new EP entitled Broken Sword, Rotten Shield, out May 16th via Closed Casket Activities. The first single from the seven-song, fantasy-tinged release is 'Knight's Oath,' and it sees the band going for a more straightforward metal sound that verges on black 'n roll — undoubtedly one of the catchiest Full of Hell songs to date. The black-and-white 'medieval furries' music video, as one YouTube commenter described it, is also worth a watch. Get Full of Hell Tickets Here On a more serious note, vocalist Dylan Walker said of the song and clip: 'Absolute dedication to your charge, be it a person you love or held tenet, and the ignominy that comes with a sudden defeat. That idea acts as a metaphor for the grief you feel when you lose an animal companion. It feels pointless, cruel, and void in the moment. The video channels those ideas and takes the viewer on a quest with our noble dog knight and his cohorts as they quest for glory and wealth in the face of darkness.' Broken Sword, Rotten Shield was produced by Kevin Bernstein (Misery Index, Pig Destroyer). The EP follows release of Full of Hell's 2024 full-length Coagulated Bliss and will drop just days after the band kicks off its co-headlining tour with Harm's Way. Full of Hell are also slated to play two festivals on that route, Welcome to Rockville and Milwaukee Metal Fest, and have festival appearances at Louder Than Life and New England Metal & Hardcore Fest later this year. Get tickets here. Pre-order Broken Sword, Rotten Shield via Closed Casket Activities. You can stream the video for 'Knight's Oath' and see the album art and tracklist below. EP Artwork: EP Tracklist: 01. Broken Sword, Rotten Shield 02. From Dog's Mouth, A Blessing Full of Hell 03. Corpselight 04. Lament of all Things 05. Mirrorhelm 06. Knight's Oath 07. To Ruin and the World's Ending Popular Posts The 100 Best Guitarists of All Time New Pornographers Drummer Joseph Seiders Charged with Child Pornography Reggie Watts Bummed Out by Coachella: "[Its] Soul Feels Increasingly Absent" Haley Joel Osment Arrested for Public Intoxication At Ski Resort 4chan Likely Gone Forever After Hackers Take Control Lady Gaga Battles Tech Issues at Coachella: "At Least You Know I Sing Live" Subscribe to Consequence's email digest and get the latest breaking news in music, film, and television, tour updates, access to exclusive giveaways, and more straight to your inbox.
