Thandiwe Newton played Nyah in Mission Impossible 2, but never reprized her role. What are the reasons for his absence?
CRITICAL MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 7
Nyah Nordoff-Hall is a character that marked Mission Impossible fans. The talented Thandiwe Newton The interpreter for the first time in the second opus of the saga, released in 2000. She is a former professional thief that the Mission Impossible Force recruits to spy on the terrorist Sean Ambrose, who is also her ex-boyfriend. She finds herself in the middle of a dangerous game involving a deadly virus called Chimera. She ends up sacrificing herself by injecting the last dose of the virus into her blood, but Ethan Hunt, the hero of the franchise, saves her in extremis and forms a romantic relationship with her.
But what happened to Nyah after this adventure? Why didn’t she reappear in subsequent films?
An aborted return in Mission Impossible 3
According to rumors, Nyah was to return in mission impossible 3 (2006), as a Mission Impossible Force agent who would work with Ethan. She would thus have been able to show her talents as a spy and her complicity with her partner.
But Thandiwe Newton reportedly declined the offer, preferring to spend more time with his family. The script of the film therefore changed to introduce the character of Julia, Ethan’s wife, played by Michelle Monaghan.
Filming difficulties with Tom Cruise
In 2020, Thandiwe Newton confided in Vulture magazine about her experience filming with Tom Cruise on mission impossible 2 (2000). She revealed that she had difficulty working with him, due to their different working styles and some frustrating scenes. In particular, she said that a night scene had been very complicated to achieve, because Cruise was not satisfied with her performance and had wanted to reverse the roles to show her what he expected of her. ‘It was the most pointless thing… I can’t imagine anything less revealing. It pushed me even further into terror and insecurity. It was a real shame‘, she said.
The comedian added that she was ‘so scared’ of Cruise, whom she considered a ‘very dominant individual’. She qualified his remarks, however, by saying that he is ‘trying very hard to be a good person’ and that he is ‘doing his best’: ‘He wasn’t awful. It’s just that he was very stressed‘. She also said she had the “most amazing time” working on the film and that Nicole KidmanCruise’s wife at the time, had been a “huge advocate” for her to get the role.
Hope for Dead Reckoning 2?
Thandiwe Newton and her Nyah character are missed by many fans of Impossible mission, who would like to know what became of her after surviving the Chimera virus and breaking up with Ethan. Many are hoping for a return of Thandiwe Newton in “Dead Reckoning 2”, the eighth film in the saga, scheduled for 2024.
