It’s practically difficult to have an action franchise with seven films, like Mission: Impossible, without a few sports cars dying along the way. Maggie Q, who portrays field agent Zhen Lei in Mission: Impossible III, confesses that she was able to do precisely that while filming episode 201 of the M: I-centric Light the Fuse podcast. The actress recounts a memorable but terrifying stunt gone wrong in which she crashes an Italian sports vehicle because of a wardrobe malfunction. The model-turned-actress Q had no clue that a call she got from a friend of a friend regarding an audition in Hollywood would ultimately change her life. Q joined the cast of J.J. Abrams’ $200 million M: I 3 production, starring Tom Cruise, for her first American movie after studying acting and filmmaking with Jackie Chan.
In a flu-induced coma, Q was cast as Zhen, a member of Ethan Hunt’s (Cruise) spy team, who was entrusted with bringing back Lindsey Farris safely (Keri Russell). Zhen goes on a tight mission with Ethan to find the culprit when the mission takes a bad turn. Q, who the hosts Charles Hood and Drew Taylor say didn’t have a driver’s licence at the time of recording, pathetically acknowledges that she actually did wreck one of the cars: “A Lamborghini crashed with a Mercedes in a fender-bender. We had four of them, and one of them was going to blow up, which is alright. However, we also had three extras just in case. J.J. hoped to take this photo when the sun was setting, but it didn’t work out that way. The issue was that the action crew wasn’t present because the shot wasn’t intended to be done that day. I was wearing these enormous heels that had a lot of straps. I tried to transfer my foot from the gas pedal to the brake, but it was a strappy heel, and I couldn’t since the pedals were so close together and it was an Italian sports vehicle. I am unable to remove my foot, and now that I am approaching quickly, there are extras standing in front of the Mercedes. This person flies out of the path. My foot is still kind of trapped with the heel in the accelerator after I collide with the Mercedes and the Lamborghini driver enters the scene.”
The assistant directors strapped Q into the car and yelled, “Action!” despite Q’s objections about continuing the shoot without the action team. Unfortunately, the stiletto heel that finished off her super spy’s outfit made it challenging to manage a crowded luxury car. Q rammed the Lamborghini into the Mercedes, just missing a few extras. Q recalls that when one of the assistant directors approached her, he said “something so rude and so nasty,” which caused her to start crying and make her way to her trailer to calm down. When can you ever wreck a $350,000 automobile and simply walk away? the actress claims that director J.J. Abrams asked her when he visited her trailer. Only on a Mission: Impossible, she said, do they have three more Lamborghinis ready for backup. Cruise and Q are the headliners of M: I 3 along with an ensemble cast that also includes Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffman, Laurence Fishburne, Simon Pegg, Michelle Monaghan, Keri Russell, Ving Rhames, and Billy Crudup.
Before Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One exploded into cinemas on July 14, 2023, check out Maggie Q in Mission: Impossible III and finish the series.