Hayley Atwell on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon on May 22, 2025.
Now that’s what you call a real-life action hero.
Hayley Atwell, best known for kicking butt on-screen, just revealed a jaw-dropping secret: she filmed a high-energy fight scene in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning while she was eight and a half months pregnant!
The actress spilled the news during a chat with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show on May 22. Right before rolling a clip from the movie, Fallon asked if there was anything the audience should know. Atwell, 43, smiled and said, “I’ve never told anyone this before. This is a Fallon exclusive.”
Then came the bombshell: “In this clip, I’m actually eight and a half months pregnant.”
Fallon, clearly shocked, shot back, “Are you serious?”
“I’m serious,” Atwell confirmed. She went on to say the cast and crew treated her like royalty during filming. “They were all like, ‘You can sit down, we’ll get the stunt double.’ But I said, ‘No way! I’ve worked too hard for this. Let me do it.’”
And she did—showing that nothing, not even being nearly nine months pregnant, could slow her down.
Atwell plays IMF agent Grace in the eighth and final chapter of the Mission: Impossible series, which hit theaters recently. She joined the franchise in 2023 and has quickly become a fan favorite.
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Off-screen, Atwell has been keeping things pretty private. She welcomed her first baby with fiancé-turned-husband Ned Wolfgang Kelly earlier this year, although the couple has stayed tight-lipped about the details. She did casually refer to him as her “husband” during a May 19 appearance on LIVE with Kelly and Mark, seemingly confirming they tied the knot.
Their engagement story? Pure rom-com gold. Atwell once told the Daily Mail about the moment Kelly popped the question in an Airbnb filled with porcelain ducks—yes, really—while an accordion player just happened to be performing outside. Oh, and he was in his underwear. You can’t make this stuff up.
Between epic stunts and new motherhood, it’s safe to say Hayley Atwell is living her most action-packed year yet—on screen and off.
