'The Audience Is Going to Hate Paula': Josh Holloway Opens Up About Brutal Scene Cut from 'Ghost Protocol'
Deleted Mission:Impossible moment was darker than anyone expected.
Josh Holloway’s role in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol may have been fleeting on screen, but behind the scenes, it was far more intense — and disturbing. Speaking to The Julia Cunningham Show on Sirius XM, the Lost actor revealed that his character, IMF agent Trevor Hanaway, originally met a much grimmer fate in the film’s opening sequence.
In the final cut, Hanaway is swiftly gunned down by an assassin played by Léa Seydoux, dying in the arms of fellow agent (and lover) Jane Carter, portrayed by Paula Patton. But the original version pushed things further: "Paula Patton comes out and finds me dying, but I’m not dead yet," Holloway explained.
"I start whispering the codes and die. Then she has to cut me open, put her hand up in my heart, re-pump it, and bring me back to life. I give her the codes, and she lets me die again."
According to Holloway, the scene was shot but ultimately scrapped due to concerns it would turn audiences against Patton’s character. "They said, 'It’s just too harsh,' and, 'The audience is going to hate Paula,'" he recalled. "And you’re supposed to be in love."
The revelation comes as Holloway promotes his new Max series Duster, in which he plays a getaway driver for the mob in 1970s America. The actor, who experienced a difficult seven-year lull in his career, credits J.J. Abrams — also a producer on Ghost Protocol — for helping bring him back to the screen.
