HALEY BENNETT Is on Her Third Cup of Coffee

O C T O B E R FOUR YEARS AFTER TOM CRUISE FIRST PLAYED MILITARY POLICEMAN– turned–wandering badass Jack Reacher in 2012’s eponymous thriller, Never Go Back adapts another one of Lee Child’s novels— but don’t call it a sequel. “Unlike a lot of franchises, this had a kind of anthology feel to it,” says director Edward Zwick, who HLEY partnered with Cruise for 2003’s The Last Samurai. “It’s a differ- ent set of circumstances.” And those circumstances are personal: Reacher reconnects with old-friend-and-maybe-more Susan BEN ETT Turner (Cobie Smulders). Turner has Reacher’s old job, and his attitude. But she’s no movie cliché. “There’s the trope of the Tough Chick suddenly in a man’s world, but when you decon- struct [that trope], she’s still The Girl, ” says Zwick. “That’s not what Cobie is. They are true peers.” A good thing, because the pair quickly find themselves on the run from a • • • IT’S 11 A.M. AND HALEY BENNETT is on her third cup of coffee. “I’m military conspiracy. “It’s an interesting heating it up for the 10th time,” JACK dynamic between these two characters, who she says, laughing. She’s chip- are so used to being alone and being in per but ready for a break: “I’m going to Italy tomorrow, so I’ve charge,” says Smulders. “Now they’re forced been up every night for the past REACHER: to work together.” Further complicating three nights in anticipation of things: a teenage girl (Heroes: Reborn’s Dan- my first vacation in two years.” You need only glance at NEVER GO BACK ika Yarosh) who might be Jack Reacher’s Bennett’s fall movies to see how STARRING Tom Cruise, daughter. “We’re in this really weird family busy the past two years have Cobie Smulders dynamic,” says Smulders, “all being hunted, been. In September, she’s the DIRECTED BY Edward Zwick sole gun-toting lady in Antoine RELEASE DATE all being chased.” Can’t wait for the family Fuqua’s The Magnificent Seven; 10/21 Christmas card! —DARREN FRANICH in October, she’ll dazzle audiences as missing housewife Megan Hipwell in Tate Taylor’s adaptation of The Girl on the Train; and come November, she’ll play an aspiring actress in Warren Beatty’s Rules Don’t Apply. Add in her parts in next Haley Bennett in year’s Thank You for Your Service The Girl on the Train; and Terrence Malick’s long-in- ( right ) with Luke Evans She got the job, and things the-works Weightless, and started falling into place, begin- suddenly three coffees don’t ning with a role in Fuqua’s The seem like enough. Equalizer (2014). Taylor credits Bennett, 28, is unfiltered She moved from Ohio to Los Bennett’s struggles for her cur- and captivating, both in con- Angeles at 18 to pursue acting rent success. “To get knocked versation and on screen. It and quickly booked the role of a down and s--- on, you’ve got no doesn’t take much to see how Britney Spears-like starlet oppo- choice but to come into your Emily Blunt’s Rachel Watson site Hugh Grant in 2007’s Music own,” he says. “I like people who could become obsessed with and Lyrics. But after that, work are open books, who’ve got Bennett’s mysterious Megan was scarce. “I was on the preci- nothing to hide, because that from afar in The Girl on the pice of just giving up before means they’re fearless.” I met Terrence Malick,” says Train. As Megan’s layers are THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN DAVID: JAMES For her part, Bennett is peeled back, Bennett is a reve- Bennett, who at times couldn’t STARRING Emily Blunt, Haley Bennett, Justin Theroux unfazed. “I’m just a girl who lation, flitting from vulnerable afford the gas to get to audi- DIRECTED BY Tate Taylor happens to have filmed a lot in : BARRY: WETCHER (2); and childlike to calculating and tions. She confided in Malick RELEASE DATE the past two years,” she says. But seductive. What’s puzzling that Weightless was all or noth- 10/7 before hanging up the phone, is why it’s taken until now for ing for her. “I was like, ‘If I don’t she has one more thing to add: Tom Cruise, Bennett to get noticed. work with you, then I’m proba- “By the way, just heated up my Aldis Hodge, and bly just going to live in New coffee—again.” Better keep those Cobie York and work in a bookshop.’ ” TRAIN THE ON GIRL THE JACK REACHER: NEVER GO BACK pots brewing. —ISABELLA BIEDENHARN Smulders P. 62 EW.COM MONTH XX, 2016 EW.COMEW.COM P. 63.

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