“Am I about to be the unnamed guy that dies with Tom”: Tom Cruise Should Stop Pulling These Pranks on His Co-stars
Glen Powell starred in a supporting role alongside action star Tom Cruise in 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick. Directed by Joseph Kosinski, the action-drama movie was a sequel to 1986’s Top Gun and follows Maverick confronting his past while training a group of young Top Gun graduates.
Upon its release, the movie was critically acclaimed. A lot of critics at the time noted that the movie was superior to the first movie and was named one of the top ten movies of 2022. Top Gun: Maverick became the second-highest-grossing movie of 2022 and the highest-grossing for Tom Cruise. In a recent interview, Powell opened up about working with Cruise.
Glen Powell details working on Top Gun: Maverick with Tom Cruise
Actor Glen Powell, who rose to fame by starring alongside Zoey Deutch in the romantic comedy Set It Up, received positive comments from the audience and critics. Powell noted that the success of his rom-com helped him get more exciting roles that he’d like to play on-screen. Top Gun: Maverick was one such role, but initially he auditioned for Bradley Bradshaw, which he lost to Miles Teller.
In his cover story interview with GQ, the actor mentioned that he was not quite ready to play the character of Jake Seresin, who is described as a ‘cocky antagonist’ in the movie. He revealed that he was reluctant to take up the role as he believed that the character was underdeveloped, but it was the director, Joseph Kosinski, and Tom Cruise who convinced him to take the part. He said,
I said, ‘If I were editing this movie, I would cut him out immediately’.
Cruise and Kosinski, after hearing out Powell and his thoughts on Hangman, reworked the character, and the actor praised the actor for understanding his concerns and hearing him out. Powell shared with GQ:
I said my piece to Tom about what I do and what I do well, and he listened. Tom’s a listener. He listens to the crew members, he listens to his collaborators, and he hears people.
Powell was ready to portray LT. Jake ‘Hangman’ Seresin in the movie, and upon its release, he was highly lauded for his performance. Whatever gap was left with Set It Up cementing his place in the industry, Top Gun: Maverick filled it up for him.
Glen Powell recalls one prank that Tom Cruise pulled on him during re-shoots
The actor not only had high praise for the action star but also recalled one prank that he pulled on him that almost made him believe that they were going to die. Powell shared that the two of them developed a friendship while working on the film, and during one of the reshoots, Cruise decided to fly him back to London at Pinewood in his helicopter. Powell mentioned to GQ that the actor pretended that the helicopter was about to go down.
Tom goes, ‘Oh no, oh no,’ and he starts dropping the helicopter over London. I was like, ‘Am I about to be the unnamed guy that dies with Tom in a smoking hole in the middle of London? ’
This was not the first time Cruise had pulled a prank on a co-star. At the world premiere of Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation, Simon Pegg revealed (via The Standard)
Tom kept putting the heater in my seat and was heating me up for a joke. I nearly died. I eventually realized what he was doing, then it became a little war, and then I put tape over the light so he couldn’t see if it was on.
Cruise is mostly known for his serious acting and work ethics, so his co-stars never really see him pulling a prank on them, which is supposedly the fun part. But the fun shouldn’t make the others think that they are near death. Despite seeing death so near due to a prank, Powell and Pegg only had good things to say about the actor, which shows how sincere he is towards his craft.
Top Gun: Maverick can be streamed on Paramount+, Apple TV+, and Prime Video.
