Tom Cruise is a veteran actor, greatly respected in the entertainment industry, and one of his most iconic roles was in the 1986 action film “Top Gun.” Over 30 years later, “Top Gun: Maverick” was released in 2022, and Glen Powell was considered for a role. But instead of jumping at the offer, Powell admitted he was initially reluctant to accept.
Glen Powell Discusses His Role in ‘Top Gun: Maverick’
Directed by Joseph Kosinski, “Top Gun: Maverick” has a star-studded lineup including Cruise, Jennifer Connelly, Miles Teller, Val Kilmer, Charles Parnell, Danny Ramirez, Jon Hamm, and Bashir Salahuddin, among others. The synopsis, per IMDb, reads, “The story involves Maverick confronting his past while training a group of younger Top Gun graduates, including the son of his deceased best friend, for a dangerous mission.”
Powell played Lt. Jake ‘Hangman’ Seresin, and in a video interview with Esquire, published on October 7, he discussed why, despite the original “Top Gun” being one of his favorite movies of all time, he initially passed on the role. Esquire asked Powell to explain why he did this, to which he replied, “I mean, I think this is probably an indication of how a lot of people can Monday morning quarterback your career and your choices. You know, when you’re actually in the arena, it feels very, very different.”
He continued, “You can even ask Cruise this, I mean, ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ seems obvious now. It was not obvious at the time, and he would even say it himself. That was hitting a bullet with a bullet. A lot of things had to align at the right time and the right place. He and Kosinski and Bruckheimer just willed that into existence. It’s such an impressive movie, but at the time, that role was not obvious, and I could see how it could get diminished over the course of an edit.”
Glen Powell Reveals How He Became Good Friends With Tom Cruise
Powell revealed he tries to look at films not by their script but as an “organism where you go ‘Okay, if I win or I’m good in this thing, how does that affect this role?’” So he admitted he had been considering the outcome of taking the part, and he wanted to understand his place on the team before accepting it. Initially, he did not think he was “best suited for this position,” and after reading the script, he felt he would not win in this role. Despite this, he met with Cruise.
“That’s just how I genuinely felt,” Powell confessed. “So, when I got brought in to talk to Tom, I turned it down when I sat down with him.” The interviewer was shocked that Powell had said no to Cruise, but Powell explained that his honesty about the part paid off because he and Cruise became “really good collaborators and really good friends.” He realized Cruise wanted someone to challenge his script and make it better, and that was the ultimate outcome.
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Glen Powell Reveals Why He Originally Said No to Tom Cruise & ’Top Gun: Maverick’