1. Training For Mission: Impossible
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For her role in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, Atwell spent five months training with a stunt professional and personal trainer. "The bruises here and there that I would get were so minor and yet I would be very proud of them," she says. "I would be like, 'I've got proof of my battle scars!'"
2. No Sugar
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Atwell completely cut out sugar for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. "It transformed my body in terms of my energy, my clarity of mind, and the natural by-products that come from living an incredibly healthy way and understanding about nutrition and rest and recovery and injury and prevention and mobility," she says. "The first time I had sugar again, I had this sort of sugar hangover the next day and felt awful."
3. Lots of Running
Atwell had to practice running to keep up with Tom Cruise. “I’ve done my 5K today, I’ve done my Pilates with Sam Eastwood, and what I’ve loved about working with her is that all the training I did had to do with creating physical behaviors that could then be incorporated in any kind of fight sequence or drifting-in-a-car sequence,” she says. “It wasn’t that we were chasing a particular aesthetic for Grace, my character—it was getting to me to a point where I could be dynamic enough and safe enough to try a ton of different things and see what looked most effective and exciting for the audience.”
4. No Is a Complete Sentence
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Atwell has learned to stick up for herself, and not be afraid to say no. “I have just hit a sweet spot where all the things I was working for in terms of having good emotional health and mental health practices clicked,” she says. “I have been able to say no and I have been more discerning about how I work, who I work with and what I will and will not put up with. Being able to spot behaviors and calling things out for what they are as opposed to going, ‘oh that person treated me that way because clearly, I am not good enough,’ has been life-changing.”
5. Trust Your Instincts
Atwell encourages others to trust their instincts. “People have their own answers to most things inside them anyway,” she says. “It’s not so much about finding the people to tell you what the answer is but being brave enough to trust yourself and your own instincts about certain situations. Acting on those instincts is what creates empowerment.”