Top Gun: Why Tom Cruise Imposed Overtime Work on Young Maverick Actors

The feature film Top Gun: Maverick, now in theaters, features a scene in which Pete Mitchell and the young pilots under him play American football on the beach. A sequence that clearly perfectly illustrates a cult beach volleyball match at the 1986 Top Gun.

Even if it is joyful and ultimately quite anecdotal, it’s an American football scene in Top Gun: Maverick paradoxically required a great deal of effort from young actors. Especially a perfectionist, Tom Cruise really asked them to come back a week after the end of filming because he was not happy with the result!

“We filmed the scene and went out in the evening to drink milk and beer”– says Glenn Powell, lieutenant translator Jake “Hengman” Ceresin. “A week later, Tom said, ‘We have to do it again. It was not good enough. We are going to do that again. “Everyone has to go back to the gym, day and night.” Young actors will have to transform their physical bodies in express mode to satisfy the Hollywood star.

To prepare for this very muscular scene, Glenn Powell used and abused coconut oil to give the screen a perfect physical appearance. “The make-up artists who were in charge of applying the oil had to stop me. It was too slippery”, Laughs American. And he was not the only one who wanted to appear on top, a healthy rivalry was broken between the actors according to him, each of whom wants to be the fiercest. “There was an incredible degree of male excitement when the boys took off their T-shirts”– says Powell. “I can tell you that the gyms were full day and night.

Tom Cruise Masterclass at the last Cannes Film Festival: