Pom Klementieff is not your role model

When Pom Klementieff joins our video call from her Parisian hotel room, the actor is jet-lagged after a delayed flight from New York — “I was stuck on the tarmac for three hours!” — and exhausted from back-to-back costume fittings for the unannounced French film she’s working on. Having kicked things off on the topic of clothes, our conversation naturally turns to the pieces she’s wearing for her HUNGER cover shoot. “I’m still wearing the pants, actually,” Klementieff says, moving the camera to reveal a pair of jeans with overlaid zips. “It’s like a chastity belt,” she says with a laugh, before adding, “kidding — it’s just double denim.” While preparing for this call with the French actor, I came across an interview where, in cahoots with her Mission: Impossible co-star Simon Pegg, she pranks the presenter (and HUNGER digital cover star) Harriet Rose. Immediately on our call, Klementieff emanates the same humour and goofiness I’d witnessed on YouTube, and I see that our interview might not be the most conventional I’ve ever conducted.

Before we get sidetracked, I ask Klementieff, 38, about her role in the forthcoming Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning. It’s the actor’s second foray into the franchise, following her appearance in the first half of the two-part finale. And from what the actor is able to divulge about the new film — which is out in cinemas in May — it will be a suitably action-packed spectacle, punctuated by “all the elements”. “There is fire, ice, air, everything,” Klementieff says. “It’s really rich, really dense.” For the actor — who’s made a name for herself with high-octane roles in titles like Guardians of the Galaxy, The Killer’s Game and Oldboy — it’s unsurprising that her highlights from filming include working with Wade Eastwood, the movie’s stunt co-ordinator. “He really pushed me,” she says. For her, this manifested in multiple runs of stunt scenes (“It’s one thing to do a fight scene, but to do it over and over in the same day is a whole different story”), navigating the avoidance of injuries (“Sometimes shit happens”) and enduring the woes of temperature-inappropriate clothing (“It needs to be [like that] for continuity, but sometimes you’re like, ‘What the hell, guys?’”)

None of those factors are a real problem for Klementieff, though — she describes the challenges that come with filming action movies as a bit of “spice”. “I like that,” she affirms. On top of that, the “honour” of being part of such a well-loved franchise seems to be worth the discomfort — especially when, like Klementieff, you’ve been following the films since your childhood. “I remember watching the first Mission: Impossible,” the actor recalls. “I was in France and it was on a tiny TV screen — and in black and white because the TV wasn’t working properly. I was blown away. Oh my God, it was so cool.” Another highlight of watching the inaugural Mission: Impossible, for Klementieff, was seeing fellow French native Emmanuelle Béart on her screen. “I think it opened something in my brain,” Klementieff muses. “Like, oh, there are French actresses in Hollywood movies too. That could be something cool to do at some point.”

Despite witnessing Béart that day, though, it transpired to be the action element of movies that has impassioned Klementieff throughout her career. “There’s something so satisfying about fighting in movies,” she says, recalling watching films like Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill in her youth. “People put themselves in so much danger and do things that, if you do in real life, you would go to jail for. But if you do it in a movie you don’t. So that’s great.” Despite this, Klementieff is no stranger to putting herself in precarious situations in real life too — she has learnt taekwondo and how to box as part of prepping for films. “A good elbow to the jaw is great,” she says, smirking. “You can hurt someone so bad with that. If everything goes to shit, just remember that.”

Besides her expertise in self-defence, Klementieff has a penchant for action that takes up a significant portion of her downtime. From motorcycle training to skydiving — which the actor has, to date, done 229 times — it’s risk-taking that Klementieff misses most when she’s on set. “After I’ve done a shoot I can do the dangerous stuff again,” she says, beaming and palpably excited to get back on the horse (another passion of hers) after her current project has wrapped. “Before shooting a movie, I try to be a good girl,” she says. “But I get itchy because I want to do crazy things. I’m, like, on a horse [pulling] the reins.” She mimes easing a wild horse — “Nice, nice,” the actor says soothingly. Surprisingly, though, Klementieff hasn’t always had such a natural aptitude for the adrenaline-inducing. “I used to not love watching people fight,” she says. “Or, when people would jump from things that were too high, I’d be like, why are you taking that risk? What the hell?” She pauses. “It’s crazy how you can have different lives in the same life, you know?”

It’s this shift in mindset — which, much like skydiving, gives “such a different
perspective of life” — that Klementieff attributes to the company she keeps. “You kind of become the people that you keep close to,” she says. “Sometimes you’re around people who do other things and you’re like, that could be cool. And then you try it.” While she chooses not to acknowledge herself as a role model — “I don’t consider myself [one] and I don’t aspire to be one” — if anything, she’s keen to encourage people to take more risks. “If the things I do make someone want to take more risks, or be braver, or try something different, that’s really cool and I’m proud of that,” she says. As for what’s next, her next adventures include continuing snowboarding lessons, taking a safari on horseback (“I want to gallop along with giraffes”) and working on some comedy pieces. “There are so many things you can do in life,” she effuses. “You can pick things up super-late and still have fun with it. If you think you’re too old, fuck that. I mean, whatever it is — it doesn’t have to be snowboarding, it can be knitting or whatever, that’s cool too — life is a process.”