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?’”)

This excerpt was taken from HUNGER Issue 34: Fight Back. Stay tuned for the full story.