Geena Davis hails Mission: Impossible's 'great diversity'

Geena Davis loved the "great diversity" of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.

The 69-year-old star has admitted to being impressed by the casting choices for the action movie, which saw Tom Cruise appear alongside the likes of Hayley Atwell, Pom Klementieff, Mariela Garriga and Ving Rhames.

Geena told Deadline: "Did you see the new Mission: Impossible yet? I noticed the great diversity in there, women left and right, all over the place, and people of colour and it’s just normal and natural. But they clearly, in my estimation, put a lot of thought into that."

Genna has been trying to make the movie industry more inclusive through her Geena Davis Institute on Gender and Media, which she founded two decades ago.

The award-winning actress also oversees the Bentonville Film Festival, and Genna has explained how she approaches the issue of inclusivity.

She shared: "In my institute we focus on what’s on screen. And in the festival, we take into account both on screen and behind the camera. So, our directors and writers and producers are very diverse as well as [the cast] on screen."

Genna thinks it's important that the film industry reflects the wider population.

The Accidental Tourist star said: "It just makes sense to reflect the people that are watching the movie.

"Ultimately, what I think we’re trying to prove is that films with unique voices that represent the population are very commercial. Research shows that the more diversity there is on screen, the more money the movie makes. But people haven’t really taken that to heart as much as they could."

Walmart - the supermarket chain founded in Bentonville - actually created the Bentonville Film Festival with inclusion as its focus.

And Genna has relished the opportunity to lead the festival.

The Hollywood star explained: "Each department of Walmart has to come up with their sort of public outreach, public service initiative that they do.

"The home video department thought, ‘Hey, what if we were to have a film festival for representation, that is about representation?’ And they thought that was a good idea. And then I was thought of as someone who might be — they needed to get a Robert Redford or Robert De Niro, or somebody named Robert to be the person fronting it. And they thought of me, and I came here and talked to everybody, and I really wanted to do it."

The Oscar-winning actress feels proud of what she's managed to achieve with the festival in a relatively short space of time.

She said: "We decided to put it on very quickly, so we only had about five months to put it all together for the first iteration. But we pulled it off and it gets bigger and better every year."