Glen Powell shares details of ‘near-death’ experience with Tom Cruise
Hit Man star Glen Powell has been sharing some of his favourite stories about Tom Cruise, including one instance he believed his life was on the line experience with his co-star from Top Gun: Maverick.
Initially, Powell had auditioned for Miles Teller’s role of Rooster in the box-office smash sequel, but he didn’t get the role despite his best efforts. Neverhtheless, Cruise enjoyed the company of Powell, so decided to offer him the role of Hangman and from there, the two became good friends.
In a new interview with GQ, Powell spoke of his impressions of Cruise while making the action movie. The actor noted, “What we were talking about is, how can Hangman service the story and give the flavor of the original Top Gun that you need?”
According to Powell, Cruise is a man who listens to his “crew members and collaborators” and genuinely responds to their feedback rather than pretending to do so in order to appease talent.
However, Cruise played a trick on Powell when he was flying his co-star back to London from Pinewood Studios via helicopter. With Cruise in the flying seat, the actor pretended that the chopper was failing and was going to hurtle to the floor.
Explaining the incident, Powell said, “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?’”
Powell duly survived Cruise’s stunt, and their friendship continued to grow. In fact, Cruise sent Powell to a “film school” in Los Angeles in which he showed him everything that he had learned from being in the film industry for so many years.
The actor noted, “[He] was like, ‘Do we all agree that this is what a camera is? This is the difference between a film camera and a digital camera…’ The funniest part is on flying. It was like he put together this entire flight school. So he would literally go, ‘Ok, this is what a plane is. Here’s how things fly. Here’s how air pressure works.’”
Cruise also gave Powell some advice on how to make it big in the film industry by “telegraph[ing] universal emotions” and “hit[ting] on anxieties that everyone can relate to.”
Powell is well on his way to becoming a megastar in Hollywood. Following his effort in Top Gun: Maverick, he delivered a leading role in the romantic comedy Anyone But You opposite Sydney Sweeney and will also soon appear in the disaster movie Twisters by Lee Isaac Chung.
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