“Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” was number one this past weekend. The action spy thriller has made about $108.6 million domestically.
We had the opportunity to chat with Ving about the film, which is now playing!
Congratulations on this Mission Impossible movie and all of its success. You didn’t make an appearance in Ghost Protocol until, really, the end of the film when all the action died down. How did it feel to get back in on the action and the missions and everything?
Ving Rhames: First of all I thank Tom Cruise because it’s very good to be a part of something. I’ve known Tom Cruise like 18 years. So to think that the African American male is still alive in any sequel even if in the one before this one, I came in at the end of it, I applaud Tom. And it’s funny because we were talking about the fact that I think about Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon, I think he only did three or four of those. This may be the first time an African-American male is in any sequel five times. That’s history. That could be history. We’ve got to do the research. The black man is alive, he’s in all five of them and getting paid. I’m saying that facetiously but if we really think about it that’s a rarity in the history of American film.
It is.
VR: Tom Cruise has been very cool with me, very generous so I feel very blessed by the whole thing and this one honestly I think this project is probably the best written one. And I think the fact that it deals a lot with the actors, with friendship and what one is willing to do for their friends and how far is one willing to go for their friends? I think the storyline has a little more in depth emotionally in general than previous ones.
And with all the other Mission Impossible’s, the cast had changed, there were even different directors and the constants were basically you and Tom Cruise but now with Rogue Nation, you’re bringing back Simon Pegg. You’re bringing back Jeremy Renner and then with you and Tom Cruise you’re just all in it together again for two consecutive movies. It really seems like that makes a difference in this movie since it feels like the stakes are higher than ever before.
VR: I think so too and I think there’s something about the chemistry and even when it was a television series, there’s a certain group of people that became a team and the audience gets to know those guys. So I applaud them. Do you know who Greg Morris is? He was the first black man, the only black man on the Mission Impossible TV series that was in the ‘80s. Just take a look. His son [Phil Morris] is an actor on TVOne [Love That Girl]. It’s a comedy. At one point, Tatyana Ali was on the show when it first began.
Can you talk a bit about your character Luther?
VR: In general a lot of soul and I think most of your viewers will probably know. Luther’s really a — I don’t want to say a computer geek but he kind of is but he adds a certain masculinity to being a computer geek. I realize I’m going off on a little tangent – in an ensemble movie, a lot of times, they edit it down. Scenes that you did don’t always make it. … But basically the film is about an hour and 45 minutes or so, and we shot it for like ten and a half months. It comes down to about an hour and 45 minutes. So you know they have to edit and…I just thank god, really. It was a really eye-opening experience for me. I feel grateful the film is doing extremely well. It’s doing extremely well overseas. Now I’m looking at things, and it’s a trend in Hollywood, it’s almost like these big budget blockbuster films now, in several of them there’s at least one African-American or Latino or Asian. I look at Fantastic Four. I looked at Avatar. When you start thinking about it…in one of those Captain America’s, Anthony Mackie is in one of those. So it’s nice to see that you’re having least one African-American. Star Wars thing there’s at least one African-American in it … But that’s kind of a good thing to see and even seeing women of color more in TV and on film I think that does show quite a bit of growth for this industry.
It’s definitely good to see that there’s just more variety in who’s being cast nowadays days and that’s definitely really important for the future of film and, not even just film, but television as well.
VR: I think that hopefully Hollywood will keep this up. I think that to get more of a perspective of what the world looks like. You see because even for me honestly … if films don’t have people of color in them, I may see that film on a plane or I may catch it on a television but I don’t go to the movie theatres to support that now…because it’s almost supporting something that’s not employing people of color and if those films make a lot of money they’ll keep doing that. That’s just something for me as an actor I just realized that I can’t really support. I may see it again on television or something but I don’t go out to the theatre and pay for a ticket opening weekend. Now I think there is a slight change, and especially on television. I mean look at the work that a lot of black women, Viola Davis, the [Kerry Washington] who does Scandal. You see more women in quality roles … Even all of the projects that Tyler Perry is doing with people of color. You may like some of them you may not like some of them. It is putting people to work.
With the announcement of Mission Impossible 6 are we going to be seeing you come around again for the next Mission?
VR: If the money is right!
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
