‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Actor Glen Powell Reveals What Shooting the Beach Football Scene Was Really Like
Top Gun: Maverick has given Tom Cruise the best opening weekend of his career and turned his younger co-stars — Glen Powell, Miles Teller, Monica Barbaro, Jay Ellis — into household names. Even though it wasn’t always easy to shoot, audiences have responded to the authenticity of the movie. The actors actually sat in the cockpits of real planes for the flying scenes, which necessitated intense training and led to Powell puking back into his face during an inversion. The shirtless beach football scene in the movie, which is a nod to the original Top Gun, didn’t make anyone nauseous (as far as we know), but Powell revealed what it was really like when they filmed it.
Glen Powell lost out on one role in ‘Top Gun: Maverick,’ but Tom Cruise insisted on casting him
It’s almost urban folklore at this point, but Powell almost wasn’t in Top Gun: Maverick. As a producer as well as the star, Cruise had a big say in the movie’s development. That included casting calls.
Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw is the son of Goose from the original movie. It’s a pivotal role and one that had to be perfectly cast. Powell, Teller, and Mad Max: Fury Road’s Nicholas Hoult were all finalists, but Teller won the role.
Yet Powell impressed Cruise so much that he insisted Powell be added to the cast, which came with a little bit of career-changing advice from the star. There was also intense flight training for Powell and his castmates, but shooting for the beach football scene might have been just as intense.
Powell revealed ‘male insecurity’ and coconut oil were abundant while shooting the beach football scene
In the original Top Gun, a two-on-two beach volleyball scene erupts out of nowhere. It had nothing to do with fighter jets, but it helped with character development for Cruise’s Maverick.
Though Top Gun: Maverick largely moves past the original, it has some callbacks. One is the sequel’s beach football scene. And as Powell told Men’s Health, the male actors took that scene as seriously as any other.
“In the days leading up, there was more male insecurity than you’ve ever seen on any set ever. And probably more coconut oil than even on Magic Mike.”
Glenn Powell
Powell also once revealed that one day of shooting wasn’t enough. When Cruise saw the first-take footage of the beach football scene, he said it wasn’t good enough and called all the actors back for reshoots.
“We shot it, and then that night, we all went out for milkshakes and tater tots and splurged. Everybody grabbed a beer,” Powell said, per Scooper. “And then a week later, Tom was like… ‘Guys, we’ve got to shoot it again. It wasn’t good enough. We’re gonna shoot it again’… And then everyone was back in the gym day and night.”
What the critics say about Powell and the ‘Top: Gun Maverick’ cast
Powell went from auditioning but not having a part in Maverick — he told Men’s Health he was “basically in the fetal position the entire day” after he found out — to having Cruise petition for his inclusion in the movie to having a key role in an all-time blockbuster. Oh, and having to reshoot a beach football scene after indulging in junk food.
Even though his role of Hangman isn’t the part he wanted, Powell now has a major bullet point for his resumé. Cruise is the star, but Powell and the rest of the supporting cast shine alongside him.
The Maverick review on RogerEbert.com boasts about the supporting cast of naval aviators. Reviewer Tomris Laffly writes that “the always great Powell as the alluringly overconfident Hangman” and his castmates fuel the “enthralling on-screen harmony” that makes the relationships developing between the action scenes feel so real.
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