Barbara Bain Remembers Being Perceived as a ‘Cool Chick’ and Brigitte Bardot Being Her ‘Hot Chick’ Counterpart (Exclusive)

Angela AndaloroMon, June 22, 2026 at 10:59 AM UTC

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Barbara Bain (left), Brigitte BardotCredit: Hulton Archive/Getty; Silver Screen Collection/Getty -

Barbara Bain is looking back at the actresses who were her contemporaries as she reflects on her career's continued journey

The actress, 94, recently caught up with PEOPLE, naming the late Brigitte Bardot as one of her peers

Bardot died in December 2025 at 91 years old

Barbara Bain says Mission: Impossible helped give her her "cool" persona.

The actress, 94, recently spoke with PEOPLE about playing Cinnamon Carter from 1966 to 1969 on the television show. The difference between Carter and Bain, the actress explained, was the natural self-assuredness.

"The part was very interesting because I've never been such a cool person. I'm not cool. I'm very up and down and emotionally have a pretty crazy rhythm, and that character had to be very cool," she tells PEOPLE.

"It was fun to find that and bring that in. That was something I had to consider. It was written, but not really me. I guess in an odd way, Bruce Geller, who wrote it, saw me that way, even though I didn't see me that way."

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Barbara Bain as Cinnamon Carter and Martin Landau as Rollin Hand in "Mission: Impossible"Credit: Silver Screen Collection/Getty

Discussing the difference in the nature of Hollywood between the 60s and today, Bain says that her public perception was very closely linked to the character she played.

"It was an interesting time if you think about it. I was thinking about it when Brigitte Bardot died recently. She was the hot chick at the time, and I was the cool chick," she recalled.

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In the years that followed, Bardot garnered controversy and was fined multiple times by the French government for inciting racial hatred. She criticized immigration in France in her 1999 book Le Carre de Pluton, writing, "My land is again invaded by an overpopulation of foreigners, especially Muslims."

For the comment, a French court fined her 30,000 francs in 2000. Outside of her animal conservation work and charity affairs, Bardot largely backed away from the spotlight in her final years. She died at 91 in December 2025.

Brigitte Bardot in 2007Credit: ERIC FEFERBERG/AFP via Getty

Of the perception of the two actresses, Bain explained, "It was very much at the same time. But when I thought about it, I said, 'Oh, I get it. That's who she was, and this is who I was.' But that was how it was written, and I had to find my way to it, and it wasn't very immediate."

"It was immediate on screen, but it wasn't immediate for me. I had to find it, and I did. And to this day, a lot of people still think I'm so cool," she continues. "So, that's all right. Maybe I am, and I don't even know it. It's not how I think of myself."

Barbara Bain in 2023Credit: David Livingston/Getty

Bain has a deep appreciation for the productions of stage and screen she's been a part of. This career, spanning nearly seven decades, has helped her encounter "a lot of people that ordinarily, I would never have met."

"And here we are together, each one quite wonderfully respecting each other's craft and working on something together. We're making something. And what we're making, it's just fascinating," she shared.

"In the theater, we're making something ephemeral that's going to disappear, so it's harder to grasp. To know that film, there we are forever — it can be looked at, and people do seem to want to do that. It also fascinates me because I don't live backwards a lot. I'm very much concerned with yesterday, today and tomorrow, and that's about it at the moment."

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