Canadian actor Henry Czerny on his return to the Mission: Impossible franchise

When Henry Czerny got the call asking him to reprise an iconic 1996 role in the latest Mission: Impossible movie, he was shredding tax documents.

“I thought my rep was joking,” the Canadian actor told CTV’s Your Morning on Wednesday. “Speaking of CIA and IMF and stuff, I was getting rid of ten years of tax papers. Just doing it, going about my daily business, and I got a call that Chris McQuarrie wants to talk to me about bringing Kittridge back. And I go ‘yes, really.’”

Today, the Mission: Impossible movie franchise spans seven movies, with an eighth in progress, but Czerny was there when it all started over 25 years ago.

The original Mission: Impossible movie starred Czerny Kittridge, an Impossible Missions Force (IMF) director who teams up with Tom Cruise’s main character, Ethan Hunt, as Hunt tracks down a mole in the Corps.

Now Kittridge is back on the big screen in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, dodging explosions and navigating action sequences all over again – only with a few extra gray hairs this time.

Czerny said he was on board as soon as director McQuarrie told him the plan for the character’s return.

“We talked the next day and he had a great idea, a great idea about what he wanted to do to bring back the character,” he said.

“It’s a great treat to be able to do that, to play someone while you’re younger, relatively less equipped, obviously less experienced, and go through life and have all that juicy life come through in the character you like to play. 25 years later with the same name but has been through quite a bit, so cool.”

Kittridge was a big part of the first movie, but hasn’t appeared in the sequels to date. So what has Eugene Kittridge’s character been up to over the decades?

According to Czerny, Kittridge has been busy working his way through various intelligence organizations.

“The FBI, the CIA, what have you, the Secret Service, he went ahead and worked at the higher level of all these agencies… (learn) what are the hurdles, the pitfalls, and how do you make it work with the slightest amount of collateral damage, and we have the Kittridge we have today in Mission: Impossible Seven.

Aside from Kittridge’s return, there’s another nod to the original Mission: Impossible movie: trains.

The 1996 film featured an extended final sequence on a moving train, and the new film returns to this fertile ground for another fast-paced action piece.

Czerny said filming another dramatic train sequence was an “absolute treat”.

“Working with Tom, first of all, working with him again, very focused, he’s getting people to be so present, and so giving and so allowing,” he said. “Chris McQuarrie is a director who wants everything you have to offer, bring it and we’ll film it and we’ll make it happen.”

He noted that he got to work with a Vanessa both times he was on the franchise – Vanessa Redgrave in 1996 and Vanessa Kirby in the 2023 movie.

“Both are exceptional actors and wonderful people,” he said.

Of course there was another important question that had to be answered during the press tour.

Does Czerny agree with Cruise’s now famous comments about Toronto traffic?

Cruise asked, “What about traffic in Toronto?” in a conversation with Etalk last week, sparking amusement among many residents who have previously experienced the congestion.

Czerny was born in Toronto – and he agrees “it’s crazy.”

He thought about how he could drive from High Park to downtown in about 15 minutes in the late ’60s.

“I’ve been trying to do that over the years,” he says. “And slowly but surely I got closer and closer to an altercation with another car, so at one point I decided to put my car away because I was frustrated because I tried to get to the center in 15 minutes, when I never could . happen again.”

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One was released in theaters on July 10. The second part will be released in 2024.